Your Name and Title:
Adam Holden, Assistant Professor & Chair
School or Organization Name:
Fort Hays State University
Co-Presenter Name(s):
Area of the World from Which You Will Present:
Hays, Kansas. USA
Language in Which You Will Present:
English
Target Audience(s):
University Professors, School administrators, teachers grade 9-12
Short Session Description (one line):
The Role of Open Educational Resources in Developing Globally Diverse Courses.
Full Session Description (as long as you would like):
Since the earliest emergence of digital trends in education, there has been a growing call to move away from the expensive rigidity of textbooks; a call that has been magnified by a rapidly diminishing shelf life, and increasingly tight funds. So what's stopping universities and school districts from ditching paper textbooks for good?
Bureaucracy, time, fear, and inflexible teaching methods, all get in the way!
Share our journey with Open Educational Resources. The Open Educational Resources initiative is a commitment that all courses offered in Department of Teacher Education programs, at Fort Hays State University now use Open Education Resources (OERs) in place of textbooks. This includes Early Childhood courses (TEEC), Elementary Education courses (TEEL), minor in Special Education courses (TESP) and minor in English as a Second Language courses (TESL). The initiative requires that all materials (print and multimedia) are now provided electronically in course shells (Blackboard and Google) to students free of charge. This has been a significant venture and has involved all members of the department. It has transformed a budget, quality control, and perhaps more importantly, teaching methodology. It has also given us the opportunity to integrate a level of diversity and globalization previously unrealized in our courses. A critical improvement for a rural, Midwestern, university that prides itself on being “Forward Thinking. World Ready.”
Having witnessed the strides that we have made to date, we will look to develop relationships with colleagues from across the globe in order to transform our courses with comprehensive Global Open Educational Resources. We invite you to partner with us as we: find available 'open' texts, maximize library resources, embed media resources, observe appropriate copyright law, maintain educational quality, and develop impressive course management, to genuinely transform our courses to be truly global in nature. Together we can share resources and build an impressive global education initiative.
Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session:
Coming soon!
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