Adapting OER to Incorporate UDL (FCC K.R.Taylor)
Overview
This template supports faculty and staff as they interrogate their OER and iterate the resource. This template is part of a Canvas course titled Adapting OER to Incorporate UDL.
The initial course is offered by ISKME to California Community College faculty and staff and was created with support from the Michelson Foundatin's Spark Grant Program.
Background on the Resource and Collaborators
Who is on your team and what are their positions at your Institution?
Kathryn R. Taylor is an adjunct professor of anthropology for Fresno City College and Reedley College.
What resource did your team chose to interrogate?
The textbook Explorations: An Open Intivitation to Biological Anthropology.
What are your team's goals with interrogating and adapting this resource?
The goal of interrogating and adapting this resource is to use it has the textbook for students in my introduction to biological anthropology courses and make it avivable for other professors teaching the same course to use if they want.
What impact do you envision this will have on students?
The impact I envision this will have on students is that it will lessen their finicial stress and improve student success as they will not have a finicial barrier to recieving thier textbook.
What impact do you envision this will have on other faculty and staff at your institution?
The impact I envision this having on other faculty and staff at my institutions is that they will see the improvement in student enrollment and success in my courses and become interesting in using OERs for thier own courses.
Adaptations to support Open Educational Practices
What are you planning to adapt to increase the features of the open licensing on this resource?
I am planning to adapt the textbook Explorations: An Open Intivitation to Biological Anthropology for my ANTH-1 (Introduction to Biological Anthropology) courses. The textbook will be hosted on two sites for students to access, LibreTexts campus library for FCC and pdfs will be uploaded to Canvas. Students will also have the option to download the whole textbook or individual chapters from LibreText for free to have offline access.
How long will this take and who will be the main point person working on this?
If all I am doing is reviewing and minor edits to the textbook, then this can be completed within a few days to a week. However realistically other things also need to get done throughout the day, therefore a month or two should be bugeted at minumin. I will be the main point person working on this project.
How will your team keep track of the changes and future impact on students and faculty?
I will keep track of the changes with the help of LibreTexts tools for editing pages and checking off items on my to-do list. When looking/reviewing at material for how it will/might impact students in the future I first look at easy of access and use (if students cannot use/access the material then it will have a negative impact), then the amount of student engagement with assignments (when I first which to OERs I noticed that more students were submitting at least an attempt on assignments when previously a small but significant portion did not even try), the last area that I primarily look at is overall grades.
Adaptations to support Accessibility
What are you planning to adapt to increase the features of Accessibility on this resource?
Since the resource that I am adapting is a textbook which will either be viewed online or through pdfs, there are limited ways that I can change the accessibility. The main areas that I will be focusing on is reviewing links to make sure that they are working and formated in an accessible manner, review included graphics to chack the alt text, and review (possibly edit) the formating of tables and data.
How long will this take and who will be the main point person working on this?
If all I am doing is reviewing and minor edits to the textbook, then this can be completed within a few days to a week. However realistically other things also need to get done throughout the day, therefore a month or two should be bugeted at minumin. I will be the main point person working on this project.
How will your team keep track of the changes and future impact on students and faculty?
I plan to (and am) go(ing) chapter by chapter to keep track of the changes made using both LibraText and my own do to list. When looking/reviewing at material for how it will/might impact students in the future I first look at easy of access and use (if students cannot use/access the material then it will have a negative impact), then the amount of student engagement with assignments (when I first which to OERs I noticed that more students were submitting at least an attempt on assignments when previously a small but significant portion did not even try), the last area that I primarily look at is overall grades.
Adaptations to support UDL
What are you planning to adapt to increase the features of UDL on this resource?
The main areas that will show increased use of the features of UDL will not be in the textbook itself, but in everything else. The assignments, videos, projections, and discussions will have the largest impact. Which features of UDL are used will depend on the method of the course: in-person, synchronous, or asynchronous.
Did your team identify any opportunities to co-create with students and what might that look like?
For asynchronous courses the main opportunities for students to co-create with students will be through discussion boards and a create your own exam option. Most discussion boards will have an opinion based prompt allowing for students to personally reflect on the material/topic. For example before a traditional exam a discussion board will be present requesting students to reflect on the topics within the chapters being tested on that they either struggled with or still have questions. Other students and myself will then have time to respond and give personalized help. For the create your exam option students at the beginning of the semester will be given instructions on the requirements, including a grading rubric, they will them have the whole semester to complete this optional assignment which could replace the score of one of their traditional exams. General requirements are that students have to have at least two questions for every chapter covered over the semester, include an answer sheet (short answer questions must have a rough outline of points a response should include), have at least three short answer questions, and the whole exam must be worth between 90-100 points (1 point per multiple choice, true/false, fill-in, or matching with short answer questions between 5-20points).
How long will this take and who will be the main point person working on this?
Similar to the previous sections the length of time it takes to complete these changes depends on the time I would have. Could take a few days to week if this project is all that I am working on or a month or two if I am also working on other projects and teaching courses.
How will your team keep track of the changes and future impact on students and faculty?
A massive to-do list will keep track of the changes. I will also look at both student success and engagement to review what the impact of these changes are on students.
Sharing your iteration
What aspect of this process stretched your thinking about your resource?
The aspect of this process that stretched my thinking about my resource the most of how to incorporate the elements of UDL. Using a traditional or OER textbook most have basic text with most photos and data as their multiple means of representation, therefore other elements need to included through assignments and outside material.
What next steps is your team considering?
The next steps I am considering are to complete a review and edits of the second edition of the textbook through LibreText and focus on the elements of UDL when creating/editing assignments and outside material to go along with the textbook.