Welcome to Elements of Art and Principles of Design for Classroom Teachers!
Please use the Storytelling & Communications Template introduced in Session 3 to tell us about yourself, why you’re interested in this project, and get to know your fellow team members.
My name is Chris Mansayon, and I am one of the librarians on our Access and Research Team (formerly Public Services) at Western Oregon University. I have been interested in library textbook accessibility initiatives (including OER) for several years now and have worked to keep up with ongoing trends and developments. This will be my first opportunity to contribute to the actual development of an OER title though and is one of the main motivators for my participation and contributions to this project. I also hope that each completed OER textbook serves to further influence other faculty at the institutions to either develop their own OER materials or engage with existing ones to integrate into the classroom.
In my role as co-coordinator, I hope to support the work of my colleagues in multiple ways throughout the entire project lifespan; from finding resources to helping with final design and marketing. As this is my first OER project, I don’t claim expertise in any of these areas but have positioned myself in a way that will allow me to learn from others.
My name is Seyed Abdollah Shahrokni, and I am an instructional designer with Center for Academic Innovation at Western Oregon University. Open Education and Open Pedagogy are areas very close to my heart! I have personally published my work in OER format (see, e.g., CAL Principles and Practices ) and have also supported faculty and colleagues publish theirs, especially by offering support in using authoring tools and conducting accessibility reviews in the design of the document. I have always learned and grown by interacting and working with my colleagues and I am already learning tons out of our collaborative effort, for which I am really grateful and excited!
In my role as Instructional Designer, I hope to offer my instructional design services, including conversations on setting learning outcomes, aligning course materials, activities, and assessment measures, and conducting accessibility checks. I am also going to help with locating OER content to be adopted/adapted during the authoring process and use the authoring tools (e.g., Pressbooks).
I am so excited about this project and I am immensely enjoying collaborating with everyone! Thank you!
This is great, Chris, it’s great to hear more about you and your roles at your institution and in this project. I look forward to seeing what others on your team share about themselves.
Thanks for sharing this, Seyed! And this is so fantastic, to learn more about you and your roles in this project and at your institution.
Thank you, Becca! You’re a great facilitator, mentor, and friend! 
I’m Sue Kunda, the Scholarly Communication Librarian at Western Oregon University (WOU). For the past five years I’ve overseen the university’s OER Stipend Program, chaired the Textbook Affordability Committee, and served as WOU’s “point person” to the statewide OER steering committee. I’m also a copyright nerd, and I’m currently enjoying learning as much as I can about digital accessibility. I’ve enjoyed helping faculty with various aspects of the OER development process in the past but have felt inadequate when it comes to textbook authoring and digital publishing. I’m really looking forward to gaining the necessary skills in both realms so I can help future OER textbook authors at WOU.
Chris Mansayon and I are acting as co-coordinators, which I’m excited about. I want to learn – and practice – project management skills, and I like the idea of having someone else to collaborate with in this leadership role.