open education conference 2016

Breaking Tradition: A Faculty-Developed Open Writing Resource at VCU

Bonnie Boaz, Meriah Crawford, Jessica Gordon, Andrew Marx, Hillary Miller

November 2, 2016

History of Project

● Origins: OER Conference, 2015 in Washington D.C.

● Call for faculty participation

● Deciding on the Citation Guide

● Applying for VCU’s Quest Grant and reviewing other opportunities for funding

OER Resources by Markus Büsges is licensed under CC by 4.0

VCU’s Department of Focused Inquiry - Background and PracticesFocused Inquiry —UNIV 111 and 112—began with a pilot year in 2006-2007 with the advent of University College (UC)

Conceived as a course to supplant English Composition and provide foundational instruction in additional skill areasFocus on developing core skills/competenciesShared CurriculumHeavy emphasis on active learning pedagogyThematicSpiral curriculum

Courses became required of VCU first-year students as part of Core Curriculum in 2007-2008Focused Inquiry was still just a program, not a full-fledged departmentYear-long courseProgram overseen by UC administratorsFI curriculum developed and maintained by appointed coordinators and committeesInterdisciplinary faculty with shared interests in SoTL

Several years later ENGL 200 (Research Writing) moved to UC, becoming UNIV 200Became the second-year course in the new 3-course sequence

FI Program finally became a full-fledged department several years ago

VCU’s Department of Focused Inquiry - Background and Practices

Textbook use in the FI Program/Department

All textbooks adopted course-wide (for all sections) in UNIV 111/112/200.

For UNIV 111/112 this has included:

Reader (combination of thematic material and skill-centric content)

Critical thinking handbook (early years)

Summer and Winter books

Composition Handbook - A Writer’s Reference

Current OER project focused on replacing this

UNIV 200:

Textbooks/Readers on Research & Writing

A Writer’s Reference

Over the Years

Hacker & Sommers’ A Writer’s Reference

Data Supported Anecdotal Evidence

Data Supported Need for OER Citation Guide

Strong Faculty Support for an OER Initiative

Partnering with the Library

Why partner with the library?Who within the library is a potential partner?What support can the library provide?

Design Meriah L. Crawford

Clever name pending:

Minimize big blobs of text (accordions)Mobile friendlyWhite space/thoughtful typographyConsistency

Photo by Anna. (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Maintenance Concerns

Avoid code/use Wordpress

Issue and question support?

Big updates (MLA 8)

It’s Hard

SO hard

Not enough time

Seems easy

⇒ Result: Fame and Fortune!

Don’t reinvent the wheelPhoto by Pedro Szekely (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)