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

Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced

Audience

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

Session Abstract

We’re pleased to provide a qualified panel of stakeholders across Massachusetts higher education institutions that will share OER course marking best practices and discuss how to make this effort more sustainable. How do we provide course marking to students during registration while ensuring that our data is timely and accurate? Meanwhile, behind the scenes, staff and administration are struggling to push or pull data from multiple dated enterprise level systems, working across the aisle and often at capacity. This panel will share their experiences and provide “lessons learned” to help institutions who are embarking on this journey or interested in improving their processes.

Objectives of the Session

Attendees will leave the session with a better understanding of course marking implementation programs and how to report or assess this work using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Full Description of the Session

The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, OER Advisory Council, has provided Course Marking Implementation Guidelines to provide guidance to Massachusetts public institutions of higher education based on the experiences and best practices from the ten Massachusetts public institutions that have already developed course marking systems. Following that guidance, each public institution will be gathering and reporting OER usage to their institutional constituents and the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. Dr. Robert Awkward and Suzanne Smith, MA DHE, will speak to this initiative and the assessment efforts that will progress during the next few years.

The panel will include two speakers from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education and five Massachusetts institutions of higher education:

Dr. Robert Awkward, Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness, MA DHE

Suzanne Smith, Director of Research & Evaluation, MA DHE

Sue Tashjian, Coordinator of Instructional Technology, Northern Essex Community College

Bernadette Sibuma, Director of Online Learning, MassBay Community College

Ceit De Vitto, AIDE Senior Special Programs Coordinator, Bunker Hill Community College

Donna Mellen, Director of Academic Technology, UMass Lowell

Marcel Raisbeck, Student, UMass Amherst

Dr. Robert Awkward will facilitate the panel. We will leave time at the end of the program for attendee questions. Attendees are welcome to attend from beginner to advanced level, this panel will provide information that will appeal to a mass audience.

What is course marking?

Course marking is “the process of assigning specific, searchable attributes to courses” (Ainsworth, Allen, Dai, Elder, Finkbeiner, Freeman, Hare, Heige, Helregel, Hoover, Kirschner, Perrin, Ray, Raye, Reed, Schoppert, & Thompson, 2020).

The effort to create course marking of open educational resources – both free and low-cost - throughout public higher education is being pursued, in part, because the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education voted unanimously on October 22, 2019 (AAC 20-03), to adopt this recommendation and encourage its implementation. The Board vote noted “OER courses should be designated in the course management systems for all public higher education so that the use of OER may be encouraged by faculty and students, and tracked and reported” (Mass. DHE, 2019).

Therefore, it is imperative to develop a system that will identify which courses are OER to encourage students to enroll in these courses, to identify course type, i.e., those that are OER (i.e., free) versus those that are low-cost (i.e., cost $50 or less) versus traditional textbooks. It will also encourage faculty to select OER materials – if they believe it is the best alternative for students – to meet the demand of students for free and low-cost teaching and learning materials.

Our ability to establish and implement key performance indicators to track, measure, and assess the cost, outcomes, usage, and perceptions of OER requires course marking to know what OER resources are being utilized in what classes/sections and to discern the cost savings and the impact on student learning, equity, and completion.

Our session title, “Advocacy and Beyond” will be discussed on many levels during the panel. Our guests will elaborate on the efforts of the OER Advisory Council and Student Advisory Council to move this agenda forward. We have students attending our public institutions that struggle to pay for the rising cost of their education and often are food insecure. Many students make choices between buying expensive course materials and paying rent or buying food.

Presenter Bios

Dr. Robert Awkward, Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness, Mass. Department of Higher Education Email: rawkward@dhe.mass.edu Dr. Robert J. Awkward is the Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness for the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. In this role, he directs two statewide programs for public higher education; a) increasing the adoption, adaptation, and creation of open educational resources that serve to lower the costs of textbooks and ancillaries and increase student learning, persistence and completion; and b) advancing and deepening the culture of learning outcomes assessment in order to increase student learning. He also serves as one of the principals leading The Equity Agenda statewide initiative. Bob is also the Co-PI for a Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot federal grant program along with a consortium of six public institutions that is funding faculty to adapt and create inclusive, accessible and culturally relevant open textbooks that align with our marketplace needs. Robert is a tenured professor of business administration (currently on leave) at Middlesex Community College. He also serves as a visiting professor and program coordinator for the Masters in Human Resources program at Framingham State University. Finally, Bob graduated with B.A. in Political Science and a M.S. in Economic Policy & Planning from Northeastern University; a M.Ed. in Human Resources Development from Boston University; and a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Suzanne Smith is Director of Research and Evaluation at the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, where she serves on the OER Advisory Council Assessment Committee and recently joined the OER Course Flagging Committee. At DHE, Suzanne’s areas of focus are the Strategic Plan for Racial Equity, DHE Data Governance, improvements to the HEIRS data collection, internal and external data requests, and program and policy evaluations. Prior to joining the DHE in July of 2022, she spent ten years in institutional research at Springfield Technical Community College, most recently as Dean of Institutional Research and Analysis. In this role she was a co-chair of STCC's 10-year comprehensive NECHE evaluation. She previously worked as a data analyst for the Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research, the National Priorities Project, and the Western Mass Network to End Homelessness. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Smith College, and a master’s degree in Economics from Umass Amherst. Her email is Ssmith2@dhe.mass.edu

Ceit De Vitto, Senior Special Programs Coordinator for AIDE at Bunker Hill Community College Email: kmdevitt@bhcc.edu Ceit De Vitto is the Senior Special Programs Coordinator/ Digital Learning and OER at Bunker Hill Community College, in the Academic Innovation and Distance Education (AIDE) department. She works closely with faculty, staff, and students to advocate for OER on campus. In her role, she provides professional development opportunities for faculty and staff in OER. She also works with faculty to adapt, adopt, and create robust inclusive OER/no-cost/low-cost Instructional materials. On a statewide level, she is a member of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s OER Advisory Council and serves on the Course Flagging Committee, which developed the Course Flagging Guidelines. Ceit holds an M.E.d in Instructional Design from UMASS Boston. She has a Creative Commons Certificate and a Quality Matters certificate.

Sue Tashjian is the Coordinator of Instructional Technology and Online Learning at Northern Essex Community College. In this role, she supports faculty with all aspects of online course design and development – as well as their instructional technology needs. She is a certified Quality Matters facilitator. Sue serves as co-chair of NECC’s Textbook Task Force and provides leadership for the campus’ open education initiative – the Adopt Open project. On a statewide level, she serves as co-chair of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Ed’s OER Advisory Council and was the Coordinator of the Massachusetts Community Colleges Go Open project. She is a member of the New England Board of Higher Ed’s OER Advisory Council and is currently the Co-PI for a Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot federal grant program along with a consortium of six public institutions that is funding faculty to adapt and create inclusive, accessible and culturally relevant open textbooks that align with our marketplace needs. On the national level, Sue served on the Executive Council of the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) as co-President. Email: stashjian@necc.mass.edu

Dr. Bernadette Sibuma is Director for Online Learning at Massachusetts Bay Community College. Since Fall 2019, she has worked closely with faculty and the Provost’s office to train faculty to design and develop online and hybrid course offerings using Blackboard’s online course standards and serves as the liaison to Massachusetts Colleges Online and NC-SARA. Bernadette is a member of the MA DHE OER Advisory Council and Course Flagging Committee, and helps coordinate and report on OER initiatives at MassBay. Bernadette also serves as the Principal Investigator for a National Science Foundation grant focused on providing faculty professional development about culturally responsive and inclusive teaching practices, specifically in the STEM disciplines. She holds a doctor of education in instructional technology and media from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a bachelors degree from Cornell University. Her email is bsibuma@massbay.edu.

Donna Mellen is the Director of Academic Technology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Donna provides technical and pedagogical consulting, workshops, and project leadership to help faculty enhance their teaching by envisioning, understanding, and using technology effectively. Donna serves as the UMass Lowell representative to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education Open Educational Resources (OER) Advisory Council and co-chairs the Course Flagging Committee. Prior to working in the Office of Information Technology, Donna worked for the Faculty Development Center since joining the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2008. Donna continues to collaborate with the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Julie Nash, and the Center for Excellence in Learning & Teaching (CELT) on projects impacting teaching and learning at the university. She holds an MBA from UMass Lowell. Her email is donna_mellen@uml.edu

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 through 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.

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Start Date

4-4-2023 11:00 AM

End Date

4-4-2023 12:00 PM

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Apr 4th, 11:00 AM Apr 4th, 12:00 PM

Advocacy and Beyond - OER Course Marking Panel

The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, OER Advisory Council, has provided Course Marking Implementation Guidelines to provide guidance to Massachusetts public institutions of higher education based on the experiences and best practices from the ten Massachusetts public institutions that have already developed course marking systems. Following that guidance, each public institution will be gathering and reporting OER usage to their institutional constituents and the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. Dr. Robert Awkward and Suzanne Smith, MA DHE, will speak to this initiative and the assessment efforts that will progress during the next few years.

The panel will include two speakers from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education and five Massachusetts institutions of higher education:

Dr. Robert Awkward, Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness, MA DHE

Suzanne Smith, Director of Research & Evaluation, MA DHE

Sue Tashjian, Coordinator of Instructional Technology, Northern Essex Community College

Bernadette Sibuma, Director of Online Learning, MassBay Community College

Ceit De Vitto, AIDE Senior Special Programs Coordinator, Bunker Hill Community College

Donna Mellen, Director of Academic Technology, UMass Lowell

Marcel Raisbeck, Student, UMass Amherst

Dr. Robert Awkward will facilitate the panel. We will leave time at the end of the program for attendee questions. Attendees are welcome to attend from beginner to advanced level, this panel will provide information that will appeal to a mass audience.

What is course marking?

Course marking is “the process of assigning specific, searchable attributes to courses” (Ainsworth, Allen, Dai, Elder, Finkbeiner, Freeman, Hare, Heige, Helregel, Hoover, Kirschner, Perrin, Ray, Raye, Reed, Schoppert, & Thompson, 2020).

The effort to create course marking of open educational resources – both free and low-cost - throughout public higher education is being pursued, in part, because the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education voted unanimously on October 22, 2019 (AAC 20-03), to adopt this recommendation and encourage its implementation. The Board vote noted “OER courses should be designated in the course management systems for all public higher education so that the use of OER may be encouraged by faculty and students, and tracked and reported” (Mass. DHE, 2019).

Therefore, it is imperative to develop a system that will identify which courses are OER to encourage students to enroll in these courses, to identify course type, i.e., those that are OER (i.e., free) versus those that are low-cost (i.e., cost $50 or less) versus traditional textbooks. It will also encourage faculty to select OER materials – if they believe it is the best alternative for students – to meet the demand of students for free and low-cost teaching and learning materials.

Our ability to establish and implement key performance indicators to track, measure, and assess the cost, outcomes, usage, and perceptions of OER requires course marking to know what OER resources are being utilized in what classes/sections and to discern the cost savings and the impact on student learning, equity, and completion.

Our session title, “Advocacy and Beyond” will be discussed on many levels during the panel. Our guests will elaborate on the efforts of the OER Advisory Council and Student Advisory Council to move this agenda forward. We have students attending our public institutions that struggle to pay for the rising cost of their education and often are food insecure. Many students make choices between buying expensive course materials and paying rent or buying food.