Hello, @July22-M-2-Cohort ! I look forward to meeting you on Wednesday for our session on Content Creation. Here are the slides 1 and handout.
We ask that you please review the first 3 slides of the slide deck and post your update to the forum by hitting ‘reply’ before our session on Wednesday, addressing the questions on Slide #2. Only one person from each team needs to post an update.
Let me know if you have any questions. See you soon!
Hi everyone. I have not consulted the resources in Session 6. I’ve identified our Accessibility supports (office of disability services, a specific librarian here at STCC) and shared these with Sandy. Personally I’d rather reach out to them only if/when we have a specific question to ask, but they are there if we need them. I also did a little reading in the “Make your book Accessible” section of the Pressbooks User Guide and have flagged that resource for the future.
And (clearly) I was able to log back into the forum this morning.
See you all tomorrow afternoon!
-Emily
Hello, all! I have not had time to look at the resources yet, but it’s on my list of “to do.” I have already consulted with my team on these issues, particularly concerning accessibility, and have a plan to make them “super-accessible.” Rachel and the others are ready when I need them. I practice trauma-informed and anti-racist pedagogy in all my courses, so I am ready to apply those to both of my projects. I am narrowing down the focus that I want to take in the Gen Ed project that will centralize marginalized groups for the main overarching theme.
See you tomorrow,
Kisha
Yay, Emily, thanks so much for the update! Identifying those supports …for when/if you need them… is so important! See you tomorrow!
Clearly you are doing awesome in the IDEA realm, Kisha, and thank you for sharing your presentation with us last week. That was appreciated!
Hello everyone. I did have a chance to check out the Accessibility Toolkit mentioned in the last session. Seems to be an excellent resource and one I’m sure I will refer to. I agree with Emily and think it would be wise to wait until we have a specific concern before reaching out.
We do have Ally at STCC and this has proven to be an incredible asset when alternative formats are needed, such as language translation or access to audio.
As far as moving ahead I am looking forward to tomorrows session focusing on content creation!
Thanks so much for the update, Sandy! That’s fantastic that you have folks that can help with language translation and audio access. 
Here is the SSU OT update:
Have you…
-consulted any of the suggested additional resources in Session 6?
-connected to accessibility and/ or technology supports in your institution(s)?
We have a full SSU team meeting scheduled for tomorrow and it is on our agenda.
Have you…
had time to reflect on how to move forward with accessible, equitable and inclusive teaching and learning in your own professional practice?
Ongoing discussions
Thank you, Kathleen! I know your group is making this work a priority, embedded through the various aspects of your OER.
Link to Writing I/II Cultural Heritage project OER Structure: Cultural Heritage Plan OER Structure Template - Google Docs
Theory here is to outline the goals for each section, provide an opening image/quotation/etc., provide a discussion on the topic, move to vignettes from experts and students, and finish with an activity.
Link to Gen Ed project OER Structure: Gen Ed Plan OER Structure Template - Google Docs
Theory here is to break down language we may use in terms of each Gen Ed learning outcome, to provide some discussion and support for the significance of such courses and learning, to emphasize the connections to other learning, provide a vignette from an expert in the field, and relate back to the main overarching theme/lens.
This plan sounds wonderful, Kisha–lots of high interest items as part of the opener, body, and closing! Thanks for sharing!
Hello, @July22-M-2-Cohort , thank you for your participation in this week’s session. Greetings to those of you who couldn’t make it. Here’s a brief recap and all resources related to the session for your reference:
We elaborated on the fact that the creation of content is one of the most important stages in the process, the work you do in this phase can make the next phases of editing, review, and formatting much easier.
Throughout TSP, we emphasize how your work as OER content creators and contributors to your project teams can change the status quo in education. As Robin DeRosa puts it, “when you use OER, you change the relationships among you, your students, and your course materials.” Robin places relationships before materials because content alone doesn’t drive student learning. The ways in which you use your content matter. Well-structured content helps your students identify what matters to the discipline and specific courses, but when you consider how your OER can foster student inquiry, you are also enabling your students to identify what matters to them as well.
With your student audience at the core of your efforts, you can develop both OER and specific pedagogical methods that in synthesis will work to support accessible, equitable, and inclusive learning.
We looked closely how specific elements in textbooks/ OER can work to represent and support your diverse learners. For that, we started on the book level and then moved into the chapter level, highlighting how a well-thought out and communicated structure helps students focus on absorbing and applying information more efficiently. Thinking through the structure of your OER will take some time and dedication, which is why we created two homework activities to help you work through the steps of in your planning the layout for your materials as well as consider specific pedagogical devices to include in your chapters. Please take the time to complete these two tasks, laid out in your handout under Homework Activities A + B.
In the latter part of our session, we looked at authentic assessment as a means to measure student growth and progress. Authentic assessments often require higher thinking skills than “traditional” tests. As such, the work that students are prompted to produce is often more indicative of individual academic growth and success. You can see how your content and assessment deeply inform each other, and how important it is that they align well with your overarching OER goals.
Finally, we spoke about supplementary materials and how they can provide even more flexibility with regards to different teaching styles. Much like your major OER, they can be openly licensed and shared with the open community. They can include anything that assists in the instruction of the material covered in the book, such as syllabi, slide decks, test banks, manuals, etc.
To summarize, drafting an outline is only the first step to help you align your overarching OER goals with the content you want to create. Thinking about how your chapters can best guide and/ or measure student learning is best done in a team or with support from instructional designers or teaching development facilitators within your institution. Discussing your goals with each other will help determine the missing parts that will enrich your OER and make it stand out within your discipline in unique ways.
We will talk more about licensing later, but within the Handout, there are some fabulous links to Creative Commons license information created by @poritzj , and @BAmbos shared this fun license matching quiz to check your knowledge: Licence Matching Activity
Next week, we will dig a bit deeper into the editing process and how you can set up an equitable and effective workflow and smooth logistics utilizing helpful checklists, tracking sheets, an author guide and much more. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out or post in the forum if you have any questions. Take care!
