Track Session Type
Evaluation: Research in OER, Evaluation student engagement, OER Impact and Programmatic Assessment
Presentation Type
Presentation
OER Level of Expertise
Beginner, Intermediate
Audience
Faculty, Librarian
Session Abstract
The College of Staten Island (CSI), located in Staten Island, NY, is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). It is the only public institution for higher education located within the Staten Island borough of New York City. Starting in 2017, CSI has successfully applied for and been awarded funds each year from a state-led grant to support OER initiatives. CSI serves many low-income students who struggle to secure expensive textbooks to succeed in their courses. In this presentation, the CSI OER Coordinator will evaluate the impact of these grant monies on CSI students over the past 5 years of the CUNY OER program. Attention will be paid to student savings, faculty involvement, OER creation, and librarian-led education in OER during the first 5 years of the grant, as well as plans for sustaining the momentum of the project in the future.
Objectives of the Session
Attendees will learn the overall 5-year impacts of state funding on an OER program at the College of Staten Island, a public senior college within the City University of New York system. They will also learn of successes and challenges throughout the grant-funded OER initiative, and tips for sustaining momentum for such a large-scale project.
Full Description of the Session
In this presentation, the College of Staten Island (CSI) OER Coordinator/Emerging Technologies Librarian will evaluate the impact of state-funded grant monies for CSI students over the past 5 years of the CUNY OER program. Attention will be paid to student savings, faculty involvement, OER creation, and librarian-led education in OER during the first 5 years of the grant, as well as plans for sustaining the momentum of the project in the future. In addition to saving CSI students over $1.5 million in textbook costs over the past 5 years of this initiative, the OER Coordinator has also created an asynchronous online introductory course to OER for CSI faculty, which has required participants to create original OER and share them to CUNY’s open institutional repository, CUNY Academic Works. The grant has supported the creation of new OER materials, such as online learning suites for Physics and Astronomy, which were incredibly crucial during the abrupt shift to remote learning during the height of the pandemic. Over 50 individual courses have been converted to Zero-Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses, using a combination of OER and materials that are available at no additional cost to students (such as CSI library materials), including some required general education courses. Although course conversions have slowed over the last two years, methods for sustaining impact using grant funding will be explored. The use of Mentimeter, a free polling software, will be used to assess similar program impact and sustainability concerns for session attendees.
Presenter Bios
Christina Boyle, Assistant Professor, is the Emerging Technologies Librarian and OER Coordinator at the College of Staten Island (CSI). Her work is largely focused on identifying different forms of technology that can be incorporated into library instruction and on promoting access for students. She has managed the New York State funded OER grant at CSI for the past 5 years, and focuses on supporting the diverse population of CSI students and faculty through the use and creation of open materials. Her other research interests are centered around popular culture and technology in libraries, and she has previously written and presented on video games and memes as information sources.
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Creative Commons License
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Start Date
4-4-2023 2:00 PM
End Date
4-4-2023 3:00 PM
5 Year Evaluation of a State-Funded OER Initiative at a 4-year Public College
In this presentation, the College of Staten Island (CSI) OER Coordinator/Emerging Technologies Librarian will evaluate the impact of state-funded grant monies for CSI students over the past 5 years of the CUNY OER program. Attention will be paid to student savings, faculty involvement, OER creation, and librarian-led education in OER during the first 5 years of the grant, as well as plans for sustaining the momentum of the project in the future. In addition to saving CSI students over $1.5 million in textbook costs over the past 5 years of this initiative, the OER Coordinator has also created an asynchronous online introductory course to OER for CSI faculty, which has required participants to create original OER and share them to CUNY’s open institutional repository, CUNY Academic Works. The grant has supported the creation of new OER materials, such as online learning suites for Physics and Astronomy, which were incredibly crucial during the abrupt shift to remote learning during the height of the pandemic. Over 50 individual courses have been converted to Zero-Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses, using a combination of OER and materials that are available at no additional cost to students (such as CSI library materials), including some required general education courses. Although course conversions have slowed over the last two years, methods for sustaining impact using grant funding will be explored. The use of Mentimeter, a free polling software, will be used to assess similar program impact and sustainability concerns for session attendees.