We found 235 results that contain "open textbooks"

Building an online community is just like building any other community: building relationships, trust, credibility, and open communication. It is important as an educator to set the norms for working together and clearly identify the roles and responsibilities for everyone in the community. It's also important to build in opportunities for interaction. When thinking about interaction, refer to Moore's Interaction Framework to consider the different sort of interactions a student might experience. Build opportunities for students to interact with yourself as the instructor, interact with the content, and interact with other students. 
 
Student to Instructor Interaction
Students can interact with the instructor via email, asynchronously, or live zoom sessions, synchronously. You can also consider the feedback you provide to students as a form of interaction, and this is likely an asynchronous interaction. Posting on the class discussion forum is another way to interact with students asynchronously, while a live chat session in Microsoft Teams is a similar form of interaction in a synchronous format. You can also record lecture videos to post in the course as another means of interacting asynchronously with students. What are some other ways students might interact with you in your course?
 
Student to Student Interaction
Students can interact synchronously with their peers on live zoom sessions, especially in a breakout room where they have the opportunity to discuss. They can interact asynchronously with peers via email or the course discussion board. To build in more student to student interaction, consider building small group activities into the course. Students can be organized into small groups within D2L, and interact to complete tasks and activities. You can direct them to use collaboration tools to complete their tasks. Some tools to consider are shared documents like Microsoft Word in Office365 or a Google Doc, or a peer review tool like Eli Review. What are some other collaborative tasks students can complete together?
 
Student to Content Interaction
Students will primarily interact with the content asynchronously, but it is still important to provide a variety of interaction opportunities. Traditional means of interacting with content might include reading assignments in the textbook, articles, or case studies. Consider including a few other opportunities for interacting with content such as videos or podcasts online. Also think about ways for students to actively engage with the content, such as project-based learning where students explore and learn by working through a project, or by completing an assignment requiring them to respond to the content like a written assignment or their own video recording. What are some other ways students might interact with the content?
 

A major function of the #iteachmsu Commons is making personal and professional connections with other people in the MSU educator community. Sharing your personal, professional, and research interests in your profile is one way of doing that.
This brief tutorial will demonstrate how you can update your #iteachmsu profile.
How do I update my #iteachmsu Commons profile? 

You first need to be logged in using your MSU NetID and password. You will then see your name in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Select 'Profile' to view your #iteachmsu Commons profile.    
Select on my profile and you will be taken to a page where you can share professional information about yourself that you wish to disclose. You can upload a picture by selecting the edit button on the left side of the profile card. 
You will also see that there are places for posts, articles, playlists, assessments, and your badges listed here, all in one area. 

Select on the pencil to make any edits to your profile that you wish to make. You can edit things such as your name, your title, your preferred pronouns, your department. You might also have a LinkedIn, Twitter, website, or blog account you would like to share here on your profile. Lastly, you can share things that you are interested in and or your research or teaching interests. 
       Click here to watch a video tutorial:   
 

 

Job Title: Accessibility CoordinatorDepartment: MSU Libraries Team: Accessibility Bio: Heidi Schroeder is the Accessibility Coordinator at the MSU Libraries. In this role, she oversees and advocates for accessibility initiatives across the Libraries and works with various campus accessibility groups and stakeholders. Heidi spearheaded the creation of the Big Ten Academic Alliance Library E-Resource Accessibility Group. She has been the primary investigator for studies on electronic textbooks and affordable textbooks and has presented and published on those topics as well as accessibility/library accessibility, library collections and e-resources, and library instruction. Heidi began her career at the MSU Libraries in 2007 as a health sciences librarian and was the Libraries’ Science Collections Coordinator from 2014-18. She also served as Co-Coordinator of MSU’s Electronic Textbook Pilot Program in 2012-13. Heidi was a 2019-2020 Big Ten Academic Alliance Academic Leadership Program Fellow.

Project Title: Opening New WindowsProject Leads: Sunil Kishore Chakrapani and Jenifer Saldanha





College/ Unit:







Department of ECE, College of Engineering and Biological Science Program, College of Natural Sciences








 














 











Elevator Pitch:Quick response or QR codes are machine readable (typically by smart phone/tablet cameras) systems similar to bar-codes that can contain information within the image. They are used to provide an easy, fast and concise way to connect to information via the internet. QR codes are used in stores as payment options, and to display information, especially becoming commonplace during the COVID-19 pandemic. This project explores the use of QR codes in improving the delivery of instructional content in engineering and biology laboratories. The specific objective of this project is to implement QR code-based instruction strategies for laboratories, which will help to make “lab-manuals” more accessible and engaging. Standard laboratory manuals can be overwhelming due to clutter and overloading of information. Students can find it unengaging, and accessing specific information can be challenging. This project will utilize sequentially programmed QR codes placed at different locations in the lab to “walk” students through experimental procedures. The QR codes will be linked to interactive web pages which will display the course content in an engaging manner. When students want to find information regarding a specific instrument or experimental protocol, they can simply scan the associated QR code which will lead them to the information along with a video of how it works. This project also employs this QR code concept to design interactive assessments. Students will answer questions by identifying and scanning the correct QR codes. Team Bios: Dr. Sunil Kishore Chakrapani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in both departments in the topics of computer aided manufacturing, and mechanics. His research interests include use of ultrasonics for nondestructive evaluation. Dr. Jenifer Saldanha is an Assistant Professor in the Biological Sciences program in the College of Natural Science. She is the Curriculum Coordinator for introductory molecular and cellular biology labs. Her broad research interests include student success and retention in STEM disciplines, life science education research, and stress biology.What are some of the successes?QR coded links for videos and initial course content were embedded in HTML pages and these work well. The use of sequential QR codes for activities was tested and we found that these work well and smoothly. QR coded assignments were developed for the lab and they work as expected. What are some of the challenges that you have experienced on this project?The QR coded assignments work for the engineering lab, but will require more time and effort to adapt for the biology lab. Web design requires a lot of effort. Using the tools from this project requires a smooth web interface. In the future, it’ll be great if the project resources can be used for web design and development in the form of undergrad hours. Supply chain issues delayed our ability to order tablets for the courses.Image attribution:QR Code for Object Taggingby preetamrai is licensed under CC-BY-2.0

Nominations for the AT&T Faculty-Staff Awards Competition are now open! The awards recognize innovative instructional technology within credit-bearing courses at MSU. This past year has required many instructors to utilize instructional technology in more frequent and groundbreaking ways, so they deserve to be celebrated! Faculty, instructors, and teaching assistants are eligible to apply. Awards will be given for the following categories:
 

Online: Instructors who use technology to enhance effective teaching practices in online courses.

 

Hybrid: Instructors who provide at least 50% of instruction with online experiences in hybrid courses.

 

Best Technology-Enabled Innovation: Instructors who enhance in-person courses with technology, or “flip” their courses. Flipped courses are those in which much of the lecture and content work is done outside of the classroom, so course time is preserved for more active instruction.

 
The deadline for entry is Friday, March 5, 2021 by 5 pm.
 
For more details on nominating an instructor, or for information on past winners, visit https://att-awards.msu.edu/entry-information. If you have any other questions, email Nick Noel at lepeschk@msu.edu.
 
 
 

In addition to caring for your own well-being and openly acknowledging a tragic event with your students, there are a number of tangible ways instructors might consider modifying their syllabus or lesson plans immediately after a crisis. This resource contains examples of policies and adaptations you may consider. These are not meant to be read as recommendations that every instructor should adopt, but rather as possibilities that instructors can individually assess and adapt to their own teaching context.
When modifying your course policies or syllabus after a crisis, it is helpful to keep a few basic principles of trauma-aware pedagogy in mind. The overarching aim of these principles is to cultivate a sense of safety in the classroom, especially when this sense has been disrupted by traumatic events. Some key principles of trauma-informed teaching include:

Empathy - take time to understand what students are experiencing, and allow them to process those experiences together
Flexibility - be patient, and forgiving with students if they aren’t able to progress through the course as you initially imagined they would.
Autonomy - give students choices that can help them feel in control
Clarity - reduce unknowns by over-communicating about what will stay the same and what will change as a result of the event
Transparency - be transparent about why you chose to respond to the event in the way that you did
Consistency - be as predictable and reliable as possible, perhaps leaning on existing classroom habits or routines to create a sense of familiarity

Next, you will find concrete examples of ways you might consider embedding these principles into your class.
Modifying the Course Content/Timeline

If classes are canceled due to a crisis, communicate to students where you plan to pick up after classes resume.
Consider pushing the course plan back a week rather than asking students to prepare for two weeks at once (e.g., the week that was missed and the current week). Then identify a week’s content to skip later on, if possible.

Explain to students why you chose to cut that section and provide a few resources for them to study on their own if they’re interested.
Revise assessments accordingly so that students aren’t evaluated on material not covered.


Review your course learning goals and think about what is truly necessary and what can be left out this time. Students’ cognitive load will be reduced after a crisis and class time might be better spent focusing on a few key topics rather than trying to get everything covered.
Reduce the quantity of readings and other work required for students to prepare for class where possible.

Modifying Assessments

Consider emphasizing low-stakes formative assessments like in-class activities and discussion posts over high-stakes summative assessments like quizzes and exams. This could be done by allowing students to choose to weight their formative assessments more heavily or by making certain summative assessments optional.

Reduce anxiety of high-stakes tests by making them take-home, or allowing students to choose a certain number of questions or problems on an existing exam to respond to as opposed to taking the entire thing.


Consider grading certain assessments pass/fail.
Make sure to revise assessments to ensure they don’t evaluate students on material that may have been skipped or not covered in detail due to an altered schedule.
Consider giving students options about how and when to complete existing assessments.

For example, allowing them to work individually or in groups. Or allowing them to submit in various formats (written, video, audio, creative, etc.)
Create new deadlines for existing assessments in conversation with students.


If using grading rubrics, consider how to adjust expectations in light of the situation, and communicate any changes to students.

Modifying Late Work Policies

Consider removing late work penalties, where possible. Ask students to stay in touch with you if they need an extension.
Give students the option to throw out a certain number of assessments, or for certain assessments to be graded pass/fail.

Modifying Attendance and Participation Policies

Consider dropping or loosening any required attendance policies. For example, increase the number of days that can be missed before incurring a penalty. You may decide to ask students to email you or their TA, when possible, if they need to miss class. Make explicit that they do not need to provide a reason for missing class.
Clearly explain to students what they need to do to make up for any classes they may miss. Try to be respectful of students’ cognitive load as you create this policy so that work doesn’t pile up when they miss class.
Consider giving everyone full credit for the “participation” score of their grade, or provide students with a variety of options about what will count as participation, especially for those who do not feel like speaking in class.


 
This resource was created by Michael McCreary. It is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Topic Area: Student Success
Presented by: Regina Gong, Andrea Bierema, Casey Henley, Rajiv Ranjan, Sadam Issa
Abstract:
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research resources that are copyright-free (public domain) or have been released under an open license that permits others to reuse, revise, remix, retain, and redistribute them. The MSU Libraries’ OER Program was created to address issues of affordability, access, and equity in providing course learning materials for students. Since its launch in the Fall 2019 semester, the OER Program has grown considerably, with 27 courses in 272 sections and 70 instructors utilizing these materials in the Spring 2021 semester. To help support faculty, the OER Award Program was launched as an incentive program for instructors that encourages and supports the use of openly-licensed materials as a pathway to increase student success. You will hear from the first cohort of OER Program awardees and their experience teaching with OER, how it changed their pedagogy, and how it facilitated better student engagement with the course material as they learn remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instructors linked to a course will have access to:

Academic dishonesty report
Academic progress reports
Grade submission and changes
Grade upload feature
Class list information including “email the class” and “exam cover sheet” functionality
Textbook and course material entry

Even if you are not assigning any materials, please go into the system and indicate that there are no assigned materials.
To submit textbook information, go to the Instructor Systems menu  on the Office of the Registrar website, and select ‘Textbook and Material Entry/Update.’  If you do not see your class(es) listed, please contact the department offering the course.



Other Resources are also available at the Registrar's Office: 

Enrollment reports and other data
Academic Programs Catalog
Academic calendars and final exam schedules
University Curriculum and Catalog

Photo by Erol Ahmed on Unsplash