March 2020 Blueprint Update for Instructors/Adopters

Hi All,

I hope you and yours are healthy and safe.

Here is the latest for the Blueprint OER College Success texts:

Audio Project update:

A beta version of about a year-long audio OER project is now available. A communications professor at SUNY Geneseo (Lee Pierce) ran with an idea that was suggested by a few of my previous students – is an audio version of the Blueprint text available? Lee gave her students an assignment to audio record themselves reading one of the chapters. The audio was then sent to a Media Communications professor at Grossmont (Breanne Scott) and she and her TA cleaned up some of the sound and added some sound effects. As it starts to roll out to be tested, we’re trying to figure out the best platform to offer it (podcast, youtube, etc.).

It is here if you may be interested in hearing a sample (also added to the ancillaries):

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Jj4lypWvuA0isa9h_8Wd1X-MdgpPHJnv

(Chapter 1 is recorded by Lee Pierce as an example for her students. All the rest are student voices – which I think will resonate with other students).

If you or your students have any feedback, please send my way.

OpenStax College Success Release:

OpenStax released their new College Success OER text (March 27). You can find it here:

https://openstax.org/details/books/college-success

I have not had a chance to take a look at it yet. If you take a look, I would be very interested in hearing your feedback. And if you end up adopting the OpenStax text, you will not hurt my feelings, but I would appreciate if you would let me know. :wink:

Info from OpenStax:

OpenStax College Success is a twelve-chapter book designed for use in First Year Experience, College Transition, College Success, and related courses.

In developing the material, the author team utilized extensive experience and research into course and college/university priorities and outcomes. The contributing writers, each experts in their field, bring the perspective of all types of institutions and student audiences: 4-year universities, community colleges, online schools, nontraditional students, as well as advocacy and support organizations. The resulting textbook is extremely current, highly sensitive to the diverse backgrounds and goals of students, and rich with activities and interaction.

Coverage includes: College preparation and responsibility, learning approaches, growth mindset and grit, time management, study skills, reading and notetaking skills, test preparation and test taking, communication, diversity and civility, health and wellbeing, financial literacy and career preparation/development.

LibreTexts and Canvas Commons

The Blueprint texts are also available in LibreTexts: https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Counseling_and_Guidance and this may be a source that would be useful and easy to use for remixing (combining sources) or adapting (editing, remixing, creating your own). There have also been some questions about Canvas course shells. To my knowledge there is not a developed shell that has been shared yet. If you have created one and are willing to share, please let me know! The main text is available in Canvas Commons and there is work in progress for the other two texts to be included. For instructors who would like the text content available in Canvas, this would be a solution.

If your college uses Canvas, you automatically have a Canvas Commons account.

If your college doesn’t use Canvas, you can create a free account here: canvas.instructure.com

Other Updates:

The recency project is continuing but the pandemic is affecting the timeline. More to come on this.

Thanks to Ellen Lockwood for continuing to do amazing work with many of the ongoing projects. More to share soon.

I still like the idea of a Blueprint conference, but there are clearly more urgent challenges so this will be revisited in the future.

Resources:

Blueprint for Success in College and Career v1.3: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/

Blueprint for Success in College: Indispensable Study Skills and Time Management Strategies v.2.2: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint1/

Blueprint for Success in College: Career Decision Making v1.2: https://press.rebus.community/blueprint3/

Ancillaries: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jkwHgNDRLeAmVCJdcwlF48eONBPdxzQ9

Finally, if anyone has interest in supporting the ongoing development in any of these areas, please let me know.

Thank you and stay healthy!

Dave Dillon

OERI Area D Regional Lead

Professor of Counseling

Grossmont College

El Cajon, CA 92020

619-644-7231

dave.dillon@gcccd.edu

@blueprint_text

https://press.rebus.community/blueprint2/

pronouns: he/him/his

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