UTA Libraries will join with organizations across the globe to celebrate Open Education Week from March 6-10. Open Education Week’s mission is to raise awareness of resources and educational materials that are free to use at no cost or are openly licensed for reuse with modification. 

Jessica McClean, Director of Open Educational Resources, stated that these materials help to make knowledge accessible to larger groups of people where cost might be a factor. 

“First of all, open educational materials reduce the costs for our students, having to pay for their course materials,” Jessica said. “Also, having faculty members publish OER is a great way to have them share their expertise and knowledge. We are then able to spread it across the world.” 

Jessica stated that Open Education Week showcases the work going on at the university. It allows students to see the resources available to them and can be an encouragement to future authors.  

One of the resources available here at the university that helps make more of these materials available is Mavs Open Press, founded in 2018.  

“Our first textbook was published on the Pressbooks site in 2018. Since then, we have published 26 faculty-authored textbooks that have a huge number of views and are being used around the world,” Jessica said. “The ‘Applied Fluid Mechanics Lab Manual,’ published through Mavs Open Press, has had more than 1 million global views since it was published.” 

 

Some of the books that have been published through Mavs Open Press include:  

· “Microbiomes: Health and the Environment” by Dylan Parks,  

· “Big Data for Epidemiology” by Tiffany Kindratt  

· “Where Does Art Come From?” by Leah McCurdy  

· “Building Information Modeling using Revit for Architects and Engineers” by Atefe Makhmalbaf   

· “How History is Made: A Student’s Guide to Reading, Writing and Thinking in the Discipline” by Stephanie Cole; Kimberly Breuer; Scott W. Palmer; and Brandon Blakeslee  

Jessica stated there are many benefits to Open Education Resources materials, such as ease of use and no cost to students. It also allows faculty to customize and make a textbook precisely how they want it and tailor it to the course they teach.  

Michelle Reed, Former UTA Director of Open Educational Resources and current Head of Scholarly and Media Commons at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, stated significant growth in open education has taken place across the state of Texas over the last few years.  

“It’s incredible to see these OER projects grow and thrive over time. When faculty choose open and affordable course content, the benefits to students' compound,” Michelle said. “These choices save students money, of course, but they also save time, reduce stress, and increase agency. For students, the difference between OER and commercial resources can be life-changing.” 

During Open Education Week, there are going to be several events to raise awareness about what OER and Mavs Open Press can provide to the UTA community. Information about Open Education Week events is available through the UTA Libraries website, https://libraries.uta.edu/oeweek.  

People interested in utilizing OER’s Mavs Open Press to publish a textbook or use an already-created book can contact the department at OER@uta.edu.  

The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries has partnered with XanEdu to make print open educational resources (OER) available to UTA students, faculty, and staff.

“We are excited to announce this partnership, which will broaden the range of OER offerings to Maverick Country,” said Rebecca Bichel, dean of UTA Libraries. “Accessibility is an important tenet of our mission at UTA Libraries, so adding another affordable avenue through which we can provide OER to our students and faculty was a priority for us in 2021.”

XanEdu is the preferred print provider of the UTA Bookstore, and has worked with other OER publishers, such as OpenStax.

Director of OER for UTA Libraries, Michelle Reed, said moving to XanEdu for all Mavs Open Press publications, including OER, open access journals, and open access books, will benefit the UTA community.

“We believe student agency is important and want to make optional print copies of the OER we publish available for student purchase,” Reed said. “Some students and faculty prefer a professionally bound print copy. Partnering with XanEdu makes this possible.”

Books published by XanEdu will be subject to the same terms as other materials offered by the UTA Bookstore. XanEdu will also make the books available via Amazon.

Reed insisted that this new partnership would not change the overall model of OER at UTA Libraries.

“Our OER will always be free in digital format,” Reed said. “All students will continue to have the option to download and print their own copies of OER with no access or usage restrictions.”

Interested students can visit the Mavs Open Press page on the XanEdu website to order print editions of OER as they become available.

The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries is continuing its tradition of celebrating Open Education Week with virtual events throughout the first week of March.

“We are excited to participate again in international Open Education Week,” said Rebecca Bichel, dean of UTA Libraries. “This week creates an ideal forum to promote the outstanding work our faculty and staff do to make education accessible and open across campus, as well as raise awareness for the ongoing efforts worldwide to increase the implementation of open educational resources (OER).”

UTA Libraries will be hosting three events from March 1 through March 5:

• Open Textbook Workshop, 3/1 @ 11:30 AM
• Ask Me Anything with OER Director Michelle Reed, 3/3 @ 2 PM
• Introduction to Pressbooks for Faculty and Staff, 3/5 @ 1 PM

Learn more about these and other Libraries events on the events calendar.

UTA Libraries shared insights into its open publishing and OER goals and commitments last December in its Publishing | REIMAGINED video, which can be viewed below or on the UTA Libraries YouTube channel.

The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries congratulates Dr. Kimberly Breuer from the UTA Department of History and Dr. Molly Wiant Cummins from the UTA Department of Communications on their receipt of grant funds from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB).

These funds, totaling $10,000, will support both professors’ work to modify and implement Open Educational Resources (OER) in their classrooms.

“We are thankful to Drs. Breuer and Cummins for their ongoing commitment to open education and celebrate their grant awards from THECB,” said Michelle Reed, UTA Libraries Director of OER. “Their projects will have a huge impact on affordability and student success at UTA.”

Replacing traditional textbooks with equally rigorous OER makes a Maverick education more accessible while lowering the overall cost for students. Since 2017, UTA Libraries has awarded 27 of its own CARES OER grants, resulting in the development of open educational resources for an estimated total cost savings of $229,085. This doesn’t account for the cost savings generated by outside OER grants like THECB.

Dr. Breuer, Associate Professor of Instruction in the UTA History department, regularly teaches the US history core curriculum surveys, lower division World Civilizations I and II, and Historical Methods. Her proposal requested funds to modify an existing OER developed for use in Technology and Science in American Society II, a new core curriculum course which partially fulfills the requirement in US History. It will be taught for the first time in the Spring 2021 semester.

Dr. Cummins, Fundamentals of Public Speaking Course Coordinator for the UTA Communications department, has been teaching foundational Communications for the better part of a decade. Her application requested funds to implement an existing OER textbook, the fourth edition of Exploring Public Speaking by Tucker, Barton, Burger, Drye, Hunsicker, Mendes, and LeHew, for a minimum of two years followed by evaluation. The estimated total cost savings of this implementation is approximately $173,500 in the first year of use.

Learn more about UTA Libraries’ OER initiatives on our website.

The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries is happy to announce the open access publication of The Little Orange Book: Short Lessons in Excellent Teaching by The University of Texas System Academy of Distinguished Teachers.

The Little Orange Book contains reflections, tips, and commentaries on teaching and learning from the members of the University of Texas System Academy of Distinguished Teachers. It was previously only available in a restricted format; its publication through Mavs Open Press makes it available as a free, online PressBook, opening access to the content to anyone in the world.

“We are ecstatic to publish this important work with Mavs Open Press,” said Michelle Reed, Director of Open Educational Resources for UTA Libraries. “Making works that were previously inaccessible available for free, through open platforms, is a core tenet of UTA Libraries. We are proud to support the UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers and our other partners who share these values of access and open education.”

Dr. Catherine Ross, associate professor of English at UT Tyler and President of the UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers, says the decision to publish with Mavs Open Press was a no-brainer.

“We are very concerned about students’ expenses in particular and about the affordability of college, in general,” Ross said. “We want students and faculty to be able to access texts as easily as possible. Mavs Open Press was an ideal choice for these reasons, and they were the first to help.”

Dr. Art Brownlow, professor of music at UT Rio Grande Valley and Fellow for the UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers, says the group has already received praise for the PressBook’s design and plans to publish future books with Mavs Open Press.

“The final book is nicely formatted and looks wonderful,” Brownlow said. “In about a year, we will begin work to adapt our second book into a PressBook, and the third Little Orange Book is just now in the concept stage, so down the road we will no doubt be looking to digitize this book as well.”

Readers can check out The Little Orange Book now on its PressBooks page.

The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries announced four recipients of its UTA Coalition for Alternative Resources in Education for Students (UTA CARES) Grant Program as part of Open Education Week March 2 through 6.

The funds, totaling $30,800 so far, support the adoption and creation of open educational resources (OER) to increase college affordability at UTA. OER include textbooks, videos, quizzes, and worksheets, as well as learning modules, lesson plans, syllabi, data, and more.

“Our students’ success is a priority of UTA Libraries—and we believe that is fundamentally tied to access and affordability of higher education,” said Rebecca Bichel, Dean of UTA Libraries. “We are proud to collaborate with our faculty partners to broaden the opportunities afforded to our students through open educational resources and look forward to seeing their projects implemented in the classroom.”

The 2020 grant cycle is the first since the university announced a half-million-dollar annual investment in UTA Libraries OER program.

“Last year, we were affirmed in our impact on students through OER—we hope to further that impact with the projects we’ve funded this spring,” said Michelle Reed, Director of Open Educational Resources for UTA Libraries. “Evidence shows that students perform and learn better when the economic barriers of textbooks and access codes are removed. As we continue to grow and expand the OER program, our goal is to continue breaking down these barriers for UTA students and make higher education more accessible at every course level.”

The UTA CARES Grant Program now accepts all application types on a rolling basis. Funds from the program are distributed across four award categories to support UTA educators in redesigning their courses using alternative materials.

Scale Grants focus on broader OER adoption by supporting the transition of all sections of a single course, course series, or program. Both types of Innovation Grant assist educators in the creation of OER when no existing OER or library-licensed content meets the learning objectives for a course. Finally, Adoption Stipends are intended to promote rapid adoption of OER or other free resources to increase affordability for students.

The Spring 2020 UTA CARES Grant Program recipients include three Innovation Grant awards and one Adoption Stipend.

The University of Texas at Arlington is investing $500,000 in to fund open educational resources (OER) led by UTA Libraries beginning in the 2019-2020 academic year.

The annually-recurring investment is intended to increase the affordability of college and success of UTA students and is the largest by a public academic institution in the state of Texas specifically supporting OER initiatives.

“The high cost of textbooks places a significant financial burden on university students,” said Dr. Rebecca Karoff, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the UT System. “UTA has been a statewide leader in enhancing access through open educational resources, and President Karbhari’s inspiring commitment of funding for OER development will make college more affordable to first-generation students and positively impact student success.”

UTA Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Teik Lim celebrated the opportunities this investment creates.

“Open education has the power to transform the student experience, leading to even greater opportunities for one of the most diverse campus populations in the nation,” Lim said. “We hope this investment from President Karbhari demonstrates UTA’s commitment to OER and sets a positive example for other institutions in Texas and beyond.”

UTA Libraries have awarded 14 OER grants—ranging from $1,000 to $10,000—over the last three years through the UTA Coalition for Alternative Resources in Education for Students (UTA CARES) Grant Program. These grants provide financial support to educators adopting, modifying, or creating free teaching and learning materials licensed for revision and reuse.

“UTA Libraries are honored by President Karbhari’s investment in the OER program,” said Rebecca Bichel, Dean of UTA Libraries. “We are proud that UTA is paving the way for open education for our students and look forward to working with our campus partners to ensure students in every College and School can benefit from OER in the coming years.”

In Spring 2019, UTA Libraries awarded $18,000 to five educators—which is expected to yield nearly $80,000 in actual cost savings in the first year of OER implementation. This will impact nearly 500 students enrolled in engineering, social work, history, mathematics and anthropology courses at UTA.

“This new investment is affirmation and recognition of the impact our early OER adopters and creators have had over the last few years,” said Michelle Reed, Director of Open Educational Resources for UTA Libraries. “Data from the grant program show positive perceptions of OER, improved course grades, and a strong desire from students for OER usage in other courses.”

Student feedback collected in courses impacted by the UTA CARES Grant Program in Spring 2019 demonstrated overwhelming support for the program and expanded OER use at UTA, with 98% of students reporting that the quality of the UTA CARES materials was as good or better than traditional commercial materials.

“Please do this for every class,” said one student.

“This is a fantastic program that should be more wide-spread throughout the university and departments,” said another student.

Additional responses noted that the financial relief allowed them an equal opportunity to be successful in their courses.

UTA CARES grant recipients and their projects are listed on the program website.

Facebook-friendly version: The University of Texas at Arlington is investing $500,000 in to fund open educational resources (OER) led by UTA Libraries beginning in the 2019-2020 academic year. Thank you, President Karbhari!

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The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries is pleased to announce six new recipients of the UTA CARES Grant Program. Since 2017, the Libraries has offered these grants to the UTA community to encourage educators to replace commercial course materials with open educational resources (OER) or other content available at no cost to students.  The Libraries’ $18,000 investment in the grants will yield actual cost savings of just under $80,000 during the first year the OER are used, impacting almost 500 UTA students enrolled in engineering, social work, history, mathematics, and anthropology courses.

OER are free teaching and learning materials that are licensed to allow for revision and reuse. OER can be fully self-contained textbooks, videos, quizzes, learning modules, lesson plans, syllabi, worksheets, data, and more.

“Students employ a number of coping strategies to reduce or eliminate the cost of textbooks and access codes—too often by choosing to go without a required resource,” said Michelle Reed, Associate Librarian at UTA Libraries and UTA CARES Grant Program administrator. “Once educators remove that financial barrier, student behavior changes. They struggle less. They worry less. They stop spending time hunting workarounds and comparison shopping. What follows is improved course grades, reduced drop-fail-withdrawal rates, and increased persistence and intensity.”

UTA CARES awards grants in three categories to support UTA educators in redesigning their courses using alternative materials. Three professors were awarded Adoption Stipends, which are intended to promote rapid adoption of OER or other free resources to increase affordability for students.

Dr. Ashley Lemke, assistant professor of Sociology and Anthropology, will be working on an OER for Introduction to Archaeology (ANTH 2339). “I chose to adopt an OER for this course for several reasons, but the most important was a response to students’ comments,” said Lemke. “Even though I was using an older edition, many students still told me that they were unable to purchase the textbook due to the cost. Students in higher education have made a commitment to better themselves and no one should be excluded from this experience due to financial limitations. These zero cost materials will go a long way towards their success.”

Dr. Bonnie Boardman of Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering also received an Adoption Stipend for Introduction to Industrial Engineering (IE 1205). She is currently at work customizing an open textbook to meet her students’ learning needs by incorporating engaging, interactive features into the UTA version to be published in the Mavs Open Press OER collection. Likewise, Ms. Aida Allen of Mathematics received an Adoption Stipend to transition a business math course to OER (MATH 1315). She hopes her use of the OER will be a “gateway for more future adoptions of the OER in Math 1315.”

UTA CARES Scale Grants focus on broader OER adoption by supporting the transition of all sections of a single course, course series, or program. Dr. Rebecca Mauldin, assistant professor of Social Work, was awarded a Scale Grant to adopt OER for research methods classes across the Bachelor of Social Work (SOCW 3308) and Master of Social Work (5308) programs.

“As soon as I heard about OER, I was excited about the possibility of doing it. With the UTA CARES grant funding, adopting OER will become a reality,” said Mauldin. “At the School of Social Work, we are very proud of the fact that UTA students graduate with some of the lowest student debt in the nation. Our students put in a lot of effort into balancing their studies with earning money for school. Providing OER is one thing we can do to support our students, continue to help them minimize their student debt, and make higher education more accessible to a broad range of people.”

The UTA CARES Grant Program also offers an Innovation Grant. This grant assists educators in the creation of OER when no existing OER or library-licensed content meets the learning objectives for a course. As Mavs Open Press, the Libraries supports UTA creators in producing and disseminating locally authored OER, whether developed from scratch or remixed from existing work.

“Cost gets a lot of attention because prices are startling and savings accumulate quickly, but feedback from our grantees and their students over the last two years of the program tells us content customization is also highly valued,” said Reed. “Our teachers are energized by the freedom and flexibility of using openly licensed materials and are encouraged by the impact of publicly sharing their own work. Plus, students really appreciate when an OER is designed specifically for them.”

Dr. Kimberly Breuer and Dr. Scott Palmer of History received the Innovation Grant for 2019 and are creating an OER for Introduction to Historical Research (HIST 3300) and the department’s first-year-experience course.

“Obviously, one motivation to create OER derived from a desire that students would not have to spend additional money on textbooks,” said Palmer. “At the same time, a common set of OER materials will enable us to ensure a degree of uniformity and consistency across multiple sections of a course that is foundational to the department’s various B.A. programs.”

The grant program is a component of broader open initiatives that increase the resonance of UTA authored work and improve public access to information. “We are pleased to offer these grants to  increase affordability for our students while providing opportunities for our talented faculty to create valuable new teaching resources that will be available for a global audience,” said Rebecca Bichel, Dean of Libraries.

“I think this funding through UTA Libraries is an amazing opportunity,” said Lemke. “More and more we see that OER and open access resources are important in academia in general and I am proud to be part of this movement. The Libraries has been extremely helpful in advertising these grants and providing support.”

UTA Libraries sponsors the grants under the auspices of the UTA Coalition for Alternative Resources in Education for Students (UTA CARES). The program was established in 2017 to support educators interested in practicing open education through the adoption of OER or library-licensed content, through the creation of new or remixed OER, and through the exploration of open educational practices, such as collaborating with students to produce educational content accessible to a wider community. Applications and awards are accepted annually. Please visit https://libguides.uta.edu/utacares/grants for more information.

The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries is pleased to announce five new recipients of the UTA CARES Grant Program. The Libraries offers these grants annually to encourage UTA educators to replace textbooks with open educational resources (OER) to decrease costs for their students.

OER are free teaching and learning materials that are licensed to allow for revision and reuse. OER can be fully self-contained textbooks, videos, quizzes, learning modules, lesson plans, syllabi, worksheets, data, and more. A recent Shorthorn article discusses how the high cost of textbooks and the use of digital access codes impact students’ academic success. More than half of the students who drop out of college cite financial barriers or the need to work as the primary reason; OER alleviate students’ stress about paying for textbooks.

“The feedback we received from students during our first year of the grant program really reinforced what we believe about the value of OER,” said Michelle Reed, Open Education Librarian for UTA Libraries. “The financial relief is substantial and learning barriers are reduced when we work together to eliminate cost and access hurdles that so frequently sit between students and their academic success.”

Civil Engineering Senior Lecturer Habib Ahmari received the UTA CARES Innovation Grant. Dr. Ahmari proposes “to transform the traditional teaching [of] Fluid Mechanics Lab” by developing a Web-based multimedia platform providing students with open access materials, including customized lab manuals, educational videos, and an interactive lab-report-preparation toolkit.

“Without this support,” Dr. Ahmari said, “I wouldn’t be able to produce course materials (educational videos, lab manuals, lab report preparation toolkit) that are needed to implement this OER and help our students to better education.”

Three Adoption Stipends were also given. One went to Mathematics Associate Professor Theresa Jorgensen to transition Geometry 3301 to OER. The project includes modifying the syllabus, course assignments, and course delivery method.

“The financial cost of traditional math textbooks is very significant,” Dr. Jorgensen said. “I didn't want students to have to purchase a textbook if it wasn't maximizing their possibilities for learning.”

The second stipend went to History Professor Andrew Milson for his course in human geography. Dr. Milson intends to replace the course textbook with OER and content from the UTA Libraries’ collection. Students will also contribute to their field by creating and editing Wikipedia pages.

“I am concerned about the rising costs of college education,” Dr. Milson said, “I believe that adopting OER in my course is one small thing I can do to counter this trend.”

The third stipend recipient is Economics Associate Clinical Professor Christy Spivey, who is developing Economic Data Analysis Capstone, a new course that begins Fall 2018. Students will use Wiki Education and open source materials from Tableau to analyze an economic question using real data and to clearly communicate the findings to a non-Economics major.

The final grant recipient is Spanish Associate Professor Ignacio Ruiz-Pérez, who was granted an Innovation Seed award. His goal is to create the first two chapters of an open textbook for Spanish 3315: Composition through Literature. Dr. Ruiz-Pérez plans to use OER that will provide Spanish students a more personalized and effective learning experience adjusted to the specific challenges they encounter in today’s global world.

“Cultural immersion students require a ‘practical’ approach to composition,” Dr. Ruiz-Pérez said, “something that provides them with the skills and knowledge to enable them to succeed in our highly competitive job market. Therefore, in the last few years I've been drastically modifying my syllabus in order to address those needs while looking for open access materials reflecting the content of my syllabus.”

Reed said that the Libraries supports the switch to OER in many ways for all UTA educators, including faculty, graduate students, staff—anyone who teaches can benefit from using OER.

“Our grantees represent a small portion of the projects and partners we’ve been working with on open education initiatives,” said Michelle Reed, Open Education Librarian for UTA Libraries. “We have much growth before us, but we should also take a moment to celebrate the growing number of educators willing to invest their time and energy into projects, like those of our 2018 grantees, that can have such a big impact on student success.”

The UTA CARES (Coalition for Alternative Resources in Education for Students) Grant Program, sponsored by UTA Libraries, was established in 2017 to support educators interested in practicing open education through the adoption of OER and, when no suitable open resource is available, through the creation of new OER or the adoption of library-licensed or other free content. Additionally, the program promotes innovation in teaching and learning through the exploration of open educational practices, such as collaborating with students to produce educational content of value to a wider community.

Michelle Reed

The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries’ Mavs Open Press recently published volume 21 of the Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association (PALARA). This two-decade-old journal was previously only available in print by subscription. 

“As co-editor, I wanted to continue the journal’s stellar publication reputation and increase the number of persons who have access to scholarly material written about Afro-Latin American literature and culture,” said Dr. Sonja Watson. “In addition, I wanted to decrease the cost of publication of the journal without jeopardizing its scholarly reputation. Thus, Mavs Open Press was a way to accomplish both missions.”

Dr. Watson and Dr. Dorothy Mosby became PALARA’s co-editors in 2017. Dr. Watson is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the College of Liberal Arts, Director of the Women's & Gender Studies Program, and Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Texas at Arlington. Dr. Dorothy Mosby is Associate Dean of Faculty and Professor of Spanish at Mount Holyoke College.

Drs. Watson and Mosby worked with staff at UTA Libraries to bring this first digital, open access volume of PALARA to fruition. Not only is this issue available digitally, UTA Libraries staff are also digitizing all 20 back issues of the journal, so that the entire backfile will soon be available to all scholars around the globe. 

“The Mavs Open Press is an outgrowth of the UTA Libraries’ strategic vision to catalyze the academic and professional success of UTA students and faculty, which mirrors the University’s guiding aspiration to enhance visibility and impact through global engagement,” said Jody Bailey, UTA Libraries’ Director of Publishing. “PALARA is an example of how faculty collaborations with Mavs Open Press can expose and highlight significant, unique scholarship, and we hope to engender similar collaborations in the future.”

Dr. Watson believes that moving from print to electronic publishing and from subscription-funded to open access will have a huge impact on the global access to material published in the journal. 

“The journal already has a strong national and international reputation in the field. Making it open access will only increase the number of scholars, students, and researchers who have access to the material,” she said. “In addition, UTA Libraries has digitized past issues, which will bring to the forefront scholarship published since the nineties in the field of Afro-Latin American Studies. This really excites me as a researcher and professor.”

PALARA was established in 1997 as a multilingual, multidisciplinary journal devoted to the study of the African diaspora in the Americas. The journal’s mission was to center scholarship on the African diaspora in the Americas and creative works by Afro-descendant writers. As the official journal of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association, PALARA was and continues to be a pioneer in the field of Afro-Latin American and African diaspora studies.  The online issue can be viewed at https://palara.journal.library.uta.edu/index.php/palara.

Jody Bailey