ALTOONA, Pa. — Penn State Altoona held its first Open and Affordable Showcase on May 7. The daylong conference was sponsored by the Robert E. Eiche Library.
The showcase brought together faculty and staff to recognize and celebrate open and affordable resources (OAER) on campus. Professional development opportunities included strategies for integrating OAER, open pedagogy, open advocacy, and more into classroom instruction to advance student access, affordability and retention.
Penn State defines OAER as “a teaching, learning or research resource that is offered freely to users in at least one form and that resides in the public domain or has been released under an open copyright license that allows for its free use, reuse, modification and sharing with attribution.” Affordable educational resources are “any required course material that students purchase for less than $50. This may include low-cost or no-cost options and library materials that do not have an open license.”
Five faculty and staff members presented a series of Lightning Talks discussing their own experiences with OAER. They included the following:
- Bill Van der Sluys: “An eBook for CHM130, Introduction to General, Organic, and Biochemistry with Applications to Agriculture and Medicine”
- Gina Baird: “Course Marking in LionPATH — Advertising our Low Cost/No Cost Course Options”
- Kelly Munly: “Transforming Adult Development and Aging Curriculum: Scholarly and Cost-Effective”
- Laura Rotunno: “Want ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT with your Course Material? Come to the COVE (the Collaborative Organization for Virtual Education)”
- Jutta Gsoels-Lorensen: “Writing an OER Module for ROAM: A Report on First Steps
Additionally, roundtable discussions were facilitated by Shawn Bernecky with “It was the Best of Times, it was … Free for Students” and Lori Lysiak with “I Identified Possible OAER. How Should I Assess Them?”
Amir Marvasti provided a recording with his “Case Study on Adoption and Impact of Open Education Resources” to kick off a Spark Session for participants to conceptualize and discuss next steps.
At the conclusion of the conference, Kelly Munly, associate professor of human development and family studies, was presented with the OAER Champion Award for her work.
For more, visit Penn State’s OAER site.