Tag: umass dartmouth

Roll Out the Red Carpet for OER

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May 10, 2024

1:24 pm

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News & Events

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By Emma Wood

MASSPIRG’s UMass Dartmouth Chapter hosted UMD’s first ever Oscars-themed awards ceremony to recognize faculty members who use free or low-cost teaching materials in their classes. MASSPIRG sought nominations from students throughout the year at tabling events, and they honored the nominees at their inaugural event one April evening with refreshments and statuettes for the winners of each category. MASSPIRG students Lily Pendergast, Topanga Pottier, and other volunteers, dedicated their time and ingenuity to planning this event to shine a spotlight on the OER work of faculty. Oscars were awarded by discipline. For example, Dr. Olubanwo took the STEM category. He uses an Openstax textbook which is available digitally at no cost to students. He recently completed the OER Adoption cohort that I lead as part of UMD’s OER initiatives. The student choice award went to Dr. Walker Downey who teaches Art Education, Art History & Media Studies.

Photo shows golden statuettes
The OER Oscars statuettes

Similar events have been held by UMass Lowell and UMass Amherst with the shared goal of recognizing professors who incorporate free and low-cost materials into their syllabi. It can take added effort for professors to locate and adopt openly licensed materials and structure their courses around them, and some faculty go even further to author their own textbooks. The benefits are well-established and worth the time. OER has shown to increase student success indicators, provide equitable access to materials, and of course, save students a financial burden. Open Educational resources are a positive option for faculty who appreciate the flexibility and potential for tailoring of content that comes with some Creative Commons licenses. The classroom experience is improved for both students and educators when course materials are easy to access and navigate from day one of class.

Photo shows group of people smiling
Faculty attendees of the OER Oscars

MASSPIRG pulled in over 80 faculty nominations for their OER Oscars event so even though only some walked away with a shiny gold statuette, it’s clear that students appreciate the OER work that faculty undertake. Some faculty resources may not fit the definition of Open Educational Materials, but still, students notice when they are paying less for their books. This might come in the form of library subscriptions or using portions of traditionally copyrighted works under Fair Use, but the impact of removing high cost from the equation is still significant. Congratulations to all the nominee on their well-deserved recognition

There was a red carpet, of course, for photo opportunities.
Consistent with the Oscars theme, there was a red carpet photo opp available.

Learn more about Open Educational Resources here: https://guides.lib.umassd.edu/oer

Research and Publishing Roundup

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March 19, 2024

12:44 pm

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Faculty Publications, Journals, News & Events, Research

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Here is the latest news in UMD faculty, staff, and community publishing and research:

Professor Chad McGuire (Public Policy) was featured in an article that detailed the impact of rising seas on the SouthCoast and mitigation strategies already in place. McGuire was also featured in an article about the changes in policy impacting coastal decision-making due to climate-induced sea level rise.Assistant Professor Peeranuch LeSeure (Nursing) was featured in the International Family Association’s newsletter, highlighting her research on improving self-care management for diabetic patients among the Portuguese population in Massachusetts. LeSeure is developing a mobile app tailored to this population’s cultural needs and values to support self-care management.Associate Professor Nikolay Anguelov (Public Policy) was featured in a Newsweek article about his research on the number of missing indigenous women in the U.S. and how it relates to the story told in the recently released film Killers of the Flower Moon.Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Kimberly Scott and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Career & Civic Engagement Matt Roy were interviewed on the Chamber of Commerce’s Education Spotlight. The episode focused on UMass Dartmouth’s commitment to students and community.

Professor Brian Glyn Williams (History) was featured in an article that analyzed the many conflicts currently occurring across the globe and the implications of varying levels of U.S. support.

Do you need help accessing any of these publications? The librarians have you covered. Contact our reference staff: https://lib.umassd.edu/about/staff-directory/contact-rils/

Virtual Panel to Showcase the OER Work of UMassD Faculty

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February 12, 2024

8:23 pm

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Faculty Publications, News & Events

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Open Education Week is March 4th – 8th, and one excellent way to celebrate is by attending this virtual panel. This is an opportunity for faculty to learn about OER Commons, a repository for Open Educational Materials (OER) and 3 exciting textbook projects at UMass Dartmouth. Open Educational Materials are teaching and learning tools such as textbooks, tests/quizzes, and classroom activities that are available free of charge. At UMass Dartmouth we have an OER Creators program through which 3 open textbooks were created in 2023. The textbook projects are E-Commerce and E-Business by Shouhong Wang, A Guide to Analyzing Arguments in an Academic Setting by Jackie O’Dell, Joshua Botvin, and Yuan Zhang, and Women’s & Gender Studies by Catherine Gardner. Each author will give an overview of the book they created. This panel will also include a demo of OER Commons by Repository Coordinator Rachel Oleaga. We welcome faculty who are curious about OER, open publishing, digital texbooks, open repositories, or who are just interested in the topics covered by these free textbooks. Register here: https://schedule.lib.umassd.edu/event/12057953?hs=a

Research and Publishing Roundup

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January 19, 2024

3:38 pm

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Faculty Publications, Journals, News & Events

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Here is the latest news in UMD faculty, staff, and community publishing and research:

The Women’s and Gender Studies Department and the University of Rhode Island co-published the fall 2023 issue of the Journal of Feminist Scholarship titled “Translating Transnational Feminisms.” The issue, co-edited by Associate Professor Erin Krafft (Crime & Justice Studies) and Caroline De Souza (’22), argues for the integral position of feminist translation practices and the theories of Feminist Translation Studies as tools for both local and transnational feminist solidarities.Professor Avijit Gangopadhyay (Estuarine & Ocean Sciences) co-published “Recent changes in the upper oceanic water masses over the Indian Ocean using Argo data” in Scientific Reports. The article quantifies different contributions of pure warming and pure freshening processes on the long-term thermohaline changes observed in the Argo era (2003-2019).Professor Brian Williams (History) wrote an article in The Conversation discussing the differences and similarities between ISIS and Hamas by comparing each group’s beliefs and tactics.Assistant Professor Jonathan Kush’s (Management & Marketing) paper “Communication networks and team performance: selecting members to network positions” was adapted into a radio program as part of NSF’s The Discovery Files. The paper examined how individuals come to occupy communication network positions and the effect of selection processes on group performance.Emeritus Professor Fahri Karakaya (Management & Marketing) co-published “Cross Cultural Analysis of Facebook on Global Purchase” in the Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness. The article examines the impact of brand influencers, brand generated content, and brand engagement on culture.Senior Advisor to the Chancellor for Economic Development and Strategic Initiatives Michael Goodman co-published a report that analyzed offshore wind companies’ impact on the SouthCoast economy and workforce. The first two years of construction on wind turbines employed nearly 2,000 Massachusetts residents.Associate Professor Robert Darst (Political Science), Associate Professor Gavin Fay (Fisheries Oceanography), and Associate Dean of the College of Engineering Iren Valova co-published “Climate Resilience in Coastal Massachusetts: A Survey of Municipal Challenges, Plans, and Needs” in MassBenchmarks Journal . The piece details the efforts of the Northeast Center for Coastal Resilience, a collaboration across the UMass system, which conducted a survey on coastal resilience in Massachusetts municipalities and produced a comprehensive report on climate-change hazards, resilience strategies, and barriers.Emeritus Professor Fahri Karakaya (Marketing) co-published a chapter titled “Demographics on the use and Importance of nutrition Labels” in Advances in Health Sciences. The chapter examines the research literature on the impact of governmental programs and other food label initiatives.

Do you need help accessing any of these publications? The librarians have you covered. Contact our reference staff: https://lib.umassd.edu/about/staff-directory/contact-rils/