This semester I converted EDC2200 Art in Education Workshop to an OER course. I have avoided using a textbook for many years, not just because of the prohibitive cost of most textbooks, but also to avoid the possibility of a single/narrow take on a subject governed by a publishing company. Choosing from a diverse array of materials allows for a wider range of perspective, narratives & counternarratives. While my course had been Zero Textbook, during the conversion process I realized that not all my resources were easily nor universally accessible. It was a lot of work to find universally accessible resources! The benefits, however, were many: I had to read…

I developed EDC 2500 into an OER course and taught this updated version of the course this semester. Designing a fresh syllabus surfaced a lot of ideas about the way that the course could go. I was constantly scaling back a bit and keeping myself in check, prioritizing readings, activities, and assignments. I was able to find many wonderful articles and online materials – it was hard not use all of them. But, I knew I couldn’t since I wholeheartedly believe that focus is critical and a scope and sequence that scaffolds learning based on prior experience and knowledge is key to growth. The design was a process of making…

Hi there – This is an introductory post about creating an OER for the Education Program’s EDC 200 – Social Foundations of Education course. To understand the goals and challenges of creating an OER for this course, I think it’s helpful to begin by giving a little background and history about the course. EDC 200 is the first course students in the Education major take but it’s also the most theoretical one. As is the case in most teacher ed programs, the course lays the theoretical “foundation” that students will need to meaningfully engage with the mostly more methods-focused courses that will follow. When I came to the college in…