Five Faculty Selected in Fall 2021 for Paid Course Materials Conversion Program

Graphic Design by Ariel Romero

Five new projects were selected for the Fall 2021 semester's Open Educational Resources Course Materials Conversion program and will receive funding from the U of A's Open Educational Resources Team and Campus Advisory Group. 

"This program is growing because of the dedication of U of A faculty," said Elaine Thornton, open education and distance learning librarian. "My thanks to the OER participants who work so diligently to select, remix, and create open educational resources that will make attending this university more affordable for our students. I'd also like to thank the OER Campus Advisory Group who commit time and energy to advocating for OER among their colleagues, and reviewing, interviewing, and selecting program participants." 

Jennifer Becnel, assistant professor of human and environmental sciences, will adapt open resources for HDFS 3423: Adolescent Development. This is a required course for human development and family sciences majors and nursing majors, and it is taught in person and online for up to 200 students per semester. Becnel's goal for adapting Open Educational Resources is "to enrich student learning" and add to the rigor of the course with the inclusion of expanded assigned reading materials.   

Stephanie Hubert, instructor of human and environmental sciences, will create an Open Educational Resources for AMPD 4063, a required course for apparel majors enrolling 100 students a year. No suitable resource currently exists for this course, as previously assigned textbooks were expensive and did not meet instructional needs.  Hubert plans to "incorporate diversity in patternmaking," addressing the needs of diverse shapes and sizes and functional needs.   

William Levine, associate professor of psychology, will create an open, graduate-level statistics textbook. PSYC 5133/5143 is a two-semester sequence required for psychology graduate students. First-semester graduate students in the Walton and Bumpers colleges also enroll in the course. Creating the open textbook will allow Levine to integrate a preferred framework and develop course materials that support teaching from his preferred perspective.     

Rebecca Miles, clinical assistant professor and assistant department chair for marketing, will adapt an open textbook for MKTG 3433: Introduction to Marketing. All Walton College majors are required to complete this course, and about 750 students enroll each semester. The Marketing Department will become the first in Walton College to work with the OER program to adopt an open resource across all sections of a required course. This resource will be used in both the face-to-face and online sections.  

Kasey Walker, teaching assistant professor of communication, will adapt two open textbooks to create an Open Educational Resource for use in COMM 2343: Introduction to Small-Group Communication. Walker will develop the resource for use in both face-to-face and online sections of the course and will also create ancillary resources to accompany the open textbook. About 175 students enroll in this course each semester, and Walker generally teaches two sections with about 50 students each. 

Those interested in learning more about Open Educational Resources programming at the U of A are encouraged to visit the university's OER website or contact the OER Team at oer@uark.edu.