Track Session Type

Sustainability: Grant Acquisition & Management, Sustainability, Engaging Student Leaders, OER for Resilience, OER Community Building, OER and Technology

Presentation Type

Panel Presentation

OER Level of Expertise

Intermediate, Advanced

Audience

Faculty, Librarian, instructional designer, Administrator, Staff, Other

It’s Just Another Filter: Course marking in the Northeast

Session Abstract

Course marking is a process of assigning specific, searchable attributes to courses in a student information system to enable students to make informed decisions about their schedules when they register for classes. Tagging courses that utilize OER, low-cost, or other no-cost course materials provides students with the power and agency to make informed decisions based on their own financial situations and helps to amplify redistributive justice, making sure all students have the required materials they need to succeed on the first day of class. It might be “just another filter” in the system, but there’s a lot to consider prior to implementation. This panel, composed of practitioners and students from the Northeast and facilitated by the New England Board of Higher Education, will share insights, challenges, opportunities, pose new questions and ideas, and identify a range of course marking resources for the Open Education community to consider.

Objectives of the Session

1. Define course marking and explain its significance

2. Identify challenges, opportunities, new questions and ideas pertaining to course marking

Full Description of the Session

Join the New England Board of Higher Education and local practitioners at various stages of planning, implementing and assessing course marking efforts to share the experiences of several practitioners who have been involved in course marking at their own institutions, systems, or state. Participants can expect to walk away with a better understanding of what course marking is and better insight into some of the challenges involved with implementation. Additionally, our panelists will pose new questions and ideas pertaining to course marking outside of the standard pros and cons. Attendees will be engaged via real time polls as well as a live Q&A towards the end of the panel discussion. This session is open to all levels and interests. Individuals of particular interest may include practitioners and administrators tasked with learning more about course marking.

Presenter Bios

Lindsey Gwozdz is an Associate Professor and the scholarly communications librarian at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. She also serves as the Open Education Fellow at the New England Board of Higher Education in Boston, Massachusetts. With an active interest in the intersections of information literacy, open education, and critical librarianship, Lindsey works with faculty on her campus and region-wide to transform the awareness of open education from a cost-savings tool to be more inclusive of pedagogies that allow for opportunities to create systemic changes in more representative and equitable information creation, evaluation, and access.

Dragan Gill is an Associate Professor and reference librarian at Rhode Island College in Providence, Rhode Island. She has coordinated the OER and open textbook initiative at her institution since 2016 and was formerly the co-chair of the Rhode Island Open Textbook Initiative. She is interested in Information Literacy, Open Education, Information Design and collaborating with the campus community to enhance student support and provide new learning opportunities.

Kevin Corcoran is the Associate Vice President of Digital Learning for the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities System. Kevin is responsible for the development and support of system-wide strategies for the effective use of digital learning tools and content that focuses on quality standards and practices, student engagement, accessibility and affordability. He currently chairs both the statewide Connecticut OER Coordinating Council and the systemwide CSCU OER Council. Kevin previously served on the Steering Committee for the Northeast OER Summit and served as chair for the DOERS3 collaborative.

Robert is the Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness for the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. In his role, he develops and leads statewide initiatives for Open Educational Resources, institutional assessment, and serves as one of the principals leading The Equity Agenda; an initiative to transform public higher education in Massachusetts. Bob is also Co-PI for a federal Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot $1.4 million, three-year grant to adopt, adapt and create open textbooks. Finally, Bob serves on the New England Board of Higher Education Open Education Committee.

Marcel Raisbeck is a Junior in the Social Thought and Political Economy (STPEC) program and the Developmental Disabilities and Human Services (DDHS) Letter of Specialization at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His work at Middlesex Community College from 2015-2021 included serving as a Supplemental Instructor, a Student OER Ambassador, and doing non-paid peer support work. At his current institution, Marcel's advocacy work specializes in the intersection between ableism/disablism and other injustices. OER has been a common thread for advocacy throughout his entire educational career, as non-open educational materials are less accessible, less inclusive, and often incur additional costs for Disabled students to get audio, braille, or digital copies.

Publishing Permission

1

Creative Commons License

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

Presenters

Lindsey Gwozdz, New England Board of Higher EducationFollow
Kevin Corcoran, Connecticut State Colleges and UniversitiesFollow
Robert J. Awkward, Mass. Department of Higher EducationFollow
Dragan Gill, Rhode Island CollegeFollow
Marcel Raisbeck, University of Massachusetts AmherstFollow

Start Date

4-4-2023 1:00 PM

End Date

4-4-2023 2:00 PM