Month: November 2023

Adopt an Openly Licensed Textbook

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November 30, 2023

4:55 pm

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by Emma Wood

The inaugural OER Adoption cohort at UMass Dartmouth was formed last year and resulted in significant cost-savings to students. The cohort, an example of campus collaboration, was established with stipends from the Provost’s Office, logistical support through the Office of Faculty Development (OFD), and expertise from the Claire T. Carney Library.

The premise of the cohort is simple – Faculty apply to be part of the group, attend workshops to learn more about openly licensed teaching materials, and commit to replace a traditional textbook with a free or low-cost option in one of their courses. For example, Prof. Yuni Kim of the English Dept. participated and decided to use two books of zero cost together in one of her courses: Modern World Literature Compact Edition and Invitation to World Literature.

Among the benefits of OER for faculty, are the flexible permissions given by the Creative Commons licenses the materials carry. We tend to think of the parameters of traditional copyright as restrictive while CC licensing offers a range of uses, including the ability to tailor and update material. The opportunity to remix or alter course materials is especially appealing when covering subjects that change rapidly.

The OER advantage to students is compelling. The price of textbooks has increased swiftly, and around 64% of students report that they have made a decision to forego purchasing a required textbook due to cost. Consequently, students without the textbook often find themselves earning a low grade or even failing the course. Still others may drop a course because of textbook cost or choose to take fewer courses.

If you find yourself dissatisfied with your current textbook or concerned about whether all of your students can procure the material, consider exploring the OER options in your subject area. The second OER Adoption Cohort call is live now through the Office of Faculty Development and accepting applications online through 4:00 p.m. on Friday, December 15, 2023. Questions may be directed to Emma Wood, Scholarly Communication Librarian or Dr. Jay Zysk, OFD Director.

“Flat World Knowledge: Open College Textbooks” by opensourceway is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is OER Adoption? There are quality OER options (openly licensed textbooks and teaching materials) available for many subjects that are ready to be “adopted” and incorporated into your class.

Where do I find resources to adopt? Openstax is one of the prominent names in openly licensed textbook publishing, but there are many other resources. Start here: https://guides.lib.umassd.edu/oer

Research Reflection: Autoethnography

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November 15, 2023

2:58 pm

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Faculty Publications

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by Megan Fletcher, PhD

Autoethnography is a narrative method in qualitative research that combines tenets of autobiographical writing with ethnographic sense-making. Ellis, Adams and Bocher (2011) point out that this combination makes autoethnography “both process and product” (p.1). Authors of autoethnography usually write in the first-person making themselves and their experiences the focus of the research, divorcing the traditional separation between researcher and subject. Autoethnographic research is often characterized by evocative and emotional experience while disclosing details of private life.

I remember the first time I learned about autoethnographic writing during a graduate seminar on qualitative research methods. I was struck by the honesty and vulnerability of the authors and their ability to harness subjective experience rather than attempt to establish and maintain objectivity in a research project. I found myself returning over and over to the topic of intimate partner violence in my developing work but made a point to keep myself (and my lived experience) out of the conversation. After that class, inspired by the bravery of the authors I had read, I decided to make a change. I wrote “We to Me: An Autoethnographic Discovery of Self – In and Out of Domestic Abuse” for my Master’s Thesis project, which later developed into my first publication (Fletcher, 2018). This manuscript went on to receive the Stephen E. Lucas Debut Publication Award from the National Communication Association.

There are great resources for exploring autoethnographic research or submitting your own work. These include the Journal of Autoethnography, the International  Association of Autoethnography and Narrative Inquiry, as well as our own Claire T. Carney Library which offers many autoethnographic articles and resources available to students and staff.

Ellis, C., Adams, T. E., & Bochner, A. P. (2011). Autoethnography: An overview. Historical Social

Research/Historische Sozialforschung, 36(1), 273–290.

Fletcher, M. A. (2018). We to me: An autoethnographic discovery of self, in and out of domestic abuse. Women’s Studies in Communication, 41(1), 42-59.

Research and Publishing Roundup

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November 6, 2023

2:16 pm

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Faculty Publications, News & Events

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Check out the latest publishing achievments in the UMassD Community:

Kevin Stokesbury, Dean of the School for Marine Science & Technology and former SMAST students Kyle Cassidy and Travis M. Lowery co-published “Constructing a baseline groundfish trawl survey for an offshore windfarm development area” in Marine and Coastal Fisheries. The article details an experimental bottom trawl survey in the Vineyard Wind lease and adjacent control areas to collect preliminary estimates of fish assemblage composition, density, and size distribution.Associate Professor Scott Field (Mathematics), Assistant Professor Vijay Varma (Mathematics), and doctoral students Tousif Islam and Feroz H. Shai co-published “Analysis of GWTC-3 with fully precessing numerical relativity surrogate models” in General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology. The article discusses their findings , including identifying a binary black hole system most likely formed through dynamical capture and whose collision produced the second fastest-moving black hole observed.

Need help accessing any of these (or other) articles? Reach out to our Research and Information Literacy Services Librarians.

How the Library Can Help with Your Course Materials

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November 3, 2023

1:16 pm

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by Kari Mofford

Course Reserve services in the library are an excellent option for connecting students to required reading, especially at the start of the semester. Students may be waiting for the Amazon truck or a bookstore voucher and risk missing a reading or two. If you have a personal copy of a required textbook, the library can catalog it temporarily and make it available at the main desk for borrowing. Course Reserves offer a backup on days when a student has forgotten their book at home. We discuss openly licensed teaching materials and their cost-savings to students a lot on this blog, but OER are not the only way to be mindful of student budgets and access considerations. Materials under traditional copyright can also be shared and distributed when Fair Use is applied.

While the Library does not have textbooks in the collection, we encourage all faculty who are using print textbooks and/or course materials to place them on Course Reserve at the Library.  You just need to read our guidelines and fill out a request form.  Students may then check out items using their UMass Passes for a short period.  You can choose 2hr, 4hr, 24hr, 3 day, or 7 day for loan period to use.

Our library has a great collection, both in print and online with most of our journal articles available electronically.  If your class needs to access an article or chapter from an e-book for a class assignment, rather than saving it as a PDF in myCourses, just add the Permalink (example below) to your myCourses instead.  Not only does that clear any copyright issues, but it actually helps us to have better usage statistics which is important when we have budget decisions with the collection.

Open Education Conference 2023

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November 2, 2023

1:44 pm

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The Open Education Conference is hosted annually to share information about open educational resources, open pedagogy, and open education initiatives. This conference celebrates the tenets of open education and promotes learning experiences that are inclusive to everyone, regardless of their background.

The conference was previously held in-person for sixteen-years but is now virtual event. OpenEd23 will be held November 7-9, 2023 online.#Opened23. For more information, check out the attendee guide, and take a look at preview videos of the keynote speakers can be found on the conference website.

There is still time to Register now to attend.