A round of applause commenced on Thursday, March 6, at the Jim Dan Hill Library as the Markwood Center for Learning, Innovation, and Collaboration (CLIC) and the Open Education Resource Committee (OER) celebrated the launch of three open textbooks written by our very own University of Wisconsin-Superior instructors. The committee focuses on benefiting the students; for instance, all students know that textbooks can be expensive. This resource typically offers free books.
The three instructors come from a diverse range of studies at UWS. They are Lynn Goerdt, professor of social work, contributing the book Macro Practice for Community and Organizational Change. Rich Freese, adjunct instructor of music, with his text People and Music: An Appreciation and History, and Amanda Zbacnik, professor of education, with collaboration from Staci Gilpin, former senior lecturer of education, presenting the textbook Nurturing Potential: An Equity-Minded Approach to Functional Behavioral Assessment.
A great deal of thought and consideration went into this process, with many instructors bringing their own motivation to the project. Goerdt said, “I thought about the benefit to my class. And I decided to create a textbook that wasn’t just for social work students because I knew I had other majors in my class. I designed it thinking it would be helpful to other social work faculty that teach change-making curriculum.”
Part of Zbacnik’s motivation stemmed from statistics presented at an earlier OER conference, which indicated that a US-wide study found that around 47 percent of students decided not to purchase a textbook. Her other catalyst was to bring in a wide variety of case study students. Zbacnik said, “We really sought out to create case studies that were very realistic in nature, but also brought in students from different cultural backgrounds or religious backgrounds, because today’s educators work with students from so many diverse backgrounds that we felt that was kind of a missing piece in many of the other texts we were looking to adopt or purchase to have our students purchase for the course.”
Freese, on the other hand, noticed something that many students may have encountered at some point in their learning history: that not purchasing the exact course book can leave valuable learning tools out, such as online quizzes or attached media resources, which are necessary to complete homework. Freese said, “What’s also going on is I’m fielding all these questions understandably from students like Dr. Freese, I’m just trying to get the textbook, or I thought I purchased the thing, and it’s, what do we do now. So, I’m scrambling to come up with alternative assessments because, like I just couldn’t with a clean conscience, tell a student, you purchased the wrong one, you now need to spend an additional $150. I just, I just couldn’t do that, and so it kind of got to a point where, like, just the time that I was taking to field these questions and come up with alternatives, like I could just write my own textbook at this point. And so I did.”
Amanda Zbacnik and Lynn Goerdt are reviewing the new OER course textbooks.
Photo by Carter Lansdale | The Promethean
Not only are these instructors influencing the way students learn, but they also offer a gentle recommendation to instructors alike. “ I’m kind of an advocate and encouraging fellow instructors that if they’re at all on the fence about whether or not OER can be used in their courses, I would really encourage them to look, and for me, like, there are a lot of virtual OER conferences out there. They’re learning from those conferences, so many depositories and so much great information out there that can be directly applied to so many disciplines in the areas of content. So I encourage more and more instructors to look into it as a viable option, and students love it. I just did an evaluation, a quick little survey, on how they feel about the use of OER versus traditional textbooks, and the feedback was so positive,” said Zbacnik.
Goerdt agreed along the same lines and said, “You know, it’s interesting cause I’ve never thought of myself as a really strong writer. I’m a researcher, and I can write research papers and that kind of thing, but I’ve never thought that I would really be able to create something that could be used. Like, I just mean, not that I didn’t think I wasn’t capable. I just didn’t really think it was something I would ever do, but I do feel like the feedback is really positive from students, kind of the tone of it, the voice of it, the size of it, the content. It feels relatable and helpful. And and if I can do it, anybody can do it, you know, so it’s like people don’t have to necessarily create a textbook, people can create a module or a short book or, you know, it’s there’s this whole world out there of open source publishing that I’m now I’m very happy to be a part of because it feels very aligned with my values. And so I feel really good about it. And I would encourage people to consider dabbling in it, using materials, adapting materials, and creating materials.”
“ What the tough part was, again, knowing where to start because there was kind of this pressure of like boy, like this, I’m replacing the textbook, like it has to be this big old brand thing. And yes, you want to make sure your students have something of quality. We want to, you know, like there are some expectations of making sure we’re doing the best we can for our students, but maybe a published textbook isn’t the best we could do for our students. It could even be like, here are some notes that I’ve had. Here are some videos I’ve gathered. Here are some really cool articles that you can all really access, you know, maybe starting there, maybe just kind of giving the instructor the permission to do it, can be simple, and that’s okay. Students can still learn from it. And also to kind of give that permission of like it doesn’t have to be the final finished product, that maybe you start like, okay, I have a chapter. I have a section. Let’s give this to my students, and like the next semester, here I have the next thing, and like two years later, I’ll have this thing that I’ve created, like the goal for instructors is definitely go easy on yourselves and allow it to be the incremental,” said Freese.
The launch of the three open textbooks by UWS instructors marks a significant step toward enhancing accessibility and affordability in education. The commitment of Goerdt, Freese, and Zbacnik to provide valuable resources reflects a growing understanding of the challenges students face in obtaining course materials. Their collaborative efforts not only enrich the learning experience but also serve as an inspiration for other educators to explore OER as viable alternatives. By embracing OER, instructors can bridge the gap in educational equity, foster diverse perspectives in their teaching, and cultivate a community of learners with equal access to knowledge and resources. As these educators have demonstrated, the journey into open resource creation can be empowering and transformative, opening new avenues for both instructors and students alike. For more information, please visit the Jim Dan Hill Library or send an email to askref@uwsuper.edu, and they will redirect you accordingly.
