Making Knowledge Accessible through OER

Writing a textbook was not just about providing students with a no-cost option for Dr. Dylan Parks; it was about making knowledge accessible.  

To achieve that goal, Parks worked with UTA Libraries' Open Educational Resources to create a textbook for his new biology course.  

Open Educational Resources supports educators in identifying, using, customizing, creating and publishing teaching and learning materials. These materials are free resources licensed to allow for revision and reuse. Once published, they are made available at no cost to students.  

I was exploring these additional resources when it came up that the library had grants available. These grants supported the authoring of original OER content," Parks said. "I had used some OER resources before, but I didn't realize that we had a group at UTA that would help fund your project but would also promote it and add it to the Libraries' database." 

Parks' textbook, "Microbiomes: Health and the Environment," educates students about the microbes, such as bacteria and their genes that naturally live on the inside and outside of the human body, contributing to health and wellness.  

"The idea that I got to build this class is where OER came into the picture. There is not an experienced textbook about microbiome studies," Parks said. "For the textbooks that I looked at, I wanted to pull some information from one book and information from another. That would have been costly if I had wanted to build this class for students."  

As Parks wrote the textbook, OER staff members provided guidance and information and shared resources with him to incorporate into the text that would aid students. After edits and revisions, the textbook was published and used for the first time in the 2022 Spring semester. It received a positive reception from students.  

Parks feels that being more invested in the material by writing helped connect students more with the information. While off-the-shelf textbooks are helpful in many cases, sometimes a different approach is needed, which makes designing a customized OER a valuable tool for faculty members to use.  

This experience of writing a textbook is something that Parks would do again. He also encourages his colleagues to look to OER if they want to write a textbook or use OER materials in the classroom.  

For more information about Open Educational Resources, visit the UTA Libraries website. Questions can also be directed to the staff at OER at oer@uta.edu.