Presentation Type

Panel Presentation

OER Level of Expertise

Intermediate, Advanced

Audience

Faculty, instructional designer, Administrator, Staff

Session Abstract

Students coming from lower social class background tend to have lower persistence and performance in college, for reasons beyond the obvious financial ones. During this session, panelists will discuss those reasons and ways that using OER can help faculty teach across social class boundaries.

Objectives of the Session

Identify ways that OER can be used to address social class-based problems

Full Description of the Session

We will begin with a brief presentation about social class, making two main points: first, that demographics in the U.S. are shifting, so more students will be from lower social class backgrounds; second, that many of the taken-for-granted expectations about what makes a good student are actually based in middle-class values and behaviors.

Next, panelists will talk about their own experiences in schools where many of the students do not come from middle-class backgrounds. An example from each perspective: For teaching, using OER allows us to customize our courses to spend more time on topics that *our* students need to learn. For administration, sometimes students choose classes based on book prices, rather than, perhaps, their interest in the topic. For a librarian, identifying and educating faculty about issues of access is important--not all students have internet access at home, or a laptop, etc.

The second half of the session will be small group work, depending on the interests and needs of participants. Generally, we would like the discussions to take the form of “What happens if you reframe a problem as a social class issue, and how can using OER help solve that problem?” We will also have vignettes to use as the basis for discussion, if needed.

The panel is geared toward anyone who works at a school with a high population of first-generation and/or working class college students. The level is intermediate or advanced, because we assume a working knowledge of OER.

Presenter Bios

Elizabeth Siler is Associate Professor in the Business Administration and Economics Department at Worcester State University.

Angela Quitadamo is Assistant Dean, Academic Student Success, at Mount Wachusett Community College.

Vicki Gruzynski is Teaching and Learning Librarian at Worcester State University.

Location

174

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Start Date

22-5-2019 10:25 AM

End Date

22-5-2019 10:50 AM

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May 22nd, 10:25 AM May 22nd, 10:50 AM

Social Class and OER

174

We will begin with a brief presentation about social class, making two main points: first, that demographics in the U.S. are shifting, so more students will be from lower social class backgrounds; second, that many of the taken-for-granted expectations about what makes a good student are actually based in middle-class values and behaviors.

Next, panelists will talk about their own experiences in schools where many of the students do not come from middle-class backgrounds. An example from each perspective: For teaching, using OER allows us to customize our courses to spend more time on topics that *our* students need to learn. For administration, sometimes students choose classes based on book prices, rather than, perhaps, their interest in the topic. For a librarian, identifying and educating faculty about issues of access is important--not all students have internet access at home, or a laptop, etc.

The second half of the session will be small group work, depending on the interests and needs of participants. Generally, we would like the discussions to take the form of “What happens if you reframe a problem as a social class issue, and how can using OER help solve that problem?” We will also have vignettes to use as the basis for discussion, if needed.

The panel is geared toward anyone who works at a school with a high population of first-generation and/or working class college students. The level is intermediate or advanced, because we assume a working knowledge of OER.