Open Ed Week 2021: Supporting Student Needs
by UAA Textbook Affordability |
Open Ed Week 2021: OER - The Gift of Flexibility
Wednesday March 3, 2021
Supporting Student Needs
Students often experience challenges and access barriers invisible to instructors. Everything from late financial aid disbursement to low or inconsistent bandwidth can keep students from fully engaging in class. Open Educational Resources (OER) and other zero cost course materials can help reduce access barriers and allow us to better support students.
UAA data shows that paying for college is students’ number one struggle. One in four UAA students say they cannot not afford to buy all of their books. We need to save students money where we can, and keeping the cost of textbooks low is one of the best ways to do that. When there is a solid alternative to a high-cost text, I hope that faculty will consider it.
— Dr. Claudia Lampman, UAA Vice Provost for Student Success
Tanya Charoonsophonsak (USUAA Delegate and College of Health student) sat down to tell us a bit more about the student experience with textbooks. In this conversation, Tanya shares her experience with textbooks, what course materials work best for students, and some unexpected textbook challenges.
UAA students are not just using OER, but CREATING them, too!
This panel of student creators reflects on their experience with these unique assignments.
Amber Worthington
UAA Communication
The Perspective of an Instructor as a Student
This semester, I decided to enroll in a foreign language class at UAA for fun. The course is a 4-credit 100-level introductory course. As an instructor at UAA, I am able to use tuition waivers to cover most of the costs for the course; however, the required textbook was over $100 to purchase! This experience really underscored to me the importance of incorporating free-to-access materials, ideally Open Educational Resources, in all of my courses.
Interested in joining 80+ UAA faculty who have adopted OER or other zero cost course materials? Do some initial searches or schedule a meeting with D’Arcy Hutchings to see what current OER and ZTC options exist for your courses.
Interested in making a difference but you’d rather not go it alone? The Textbook Affordability Fellows program has provided structured support and $2,500 compensation to 19 UAA faculty who have transitioned from commercial to ZTC/OER course materials over the past 2 years.
Learn more about UAA’s Textbook Affordability initiative.
Participating in the global Open Education Week is part of UAA's Textbook Affordability initiative to make college more affordable. This series will provide you with practical tips and inspiration for improving student success by reducing the cost of course materials and incorporating open educational practices.
Join us tomorrow for "Tackling ZTC/OER Challenges."
"Open Ed Week 2021: Supporting Student Needs" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.