International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 181

International Journal of Open Educational Resources • Vol. 2, No. 1 • Fall 2019 / Winter 2020
Teaching Critical Thinking and
Metaliteracy Through OER: Theory and
Practice in a Course Collaboration
Trudi E. Jacobson and Sally Friedman
University at Albany, New York
Abstract
Textbooks are often the primary reference when we think of open
educational resources (OER). While these textbooks are important
and offer obvious economic benefits to students, the range of
OER is wide and growing. In this paper, we introduce a specific set
of OER, under the rubric of the metaliteracy framework, designed
to strengthen critical thinking and the overall learning capacities
of students. We describe a successful collaboration between an instructor
of a political science course and a librarian, which employed
these resources to enhance the overall student experience
and to focus student attention on becoming more active contributors
to their own learning.
The authors would like to thank Kelsey L. O’Brien and Karyn Kalita
for their reviews of the manuscript and Emily Matott for her
reflections on her student experiences in RPOS250.
Keywords: metaliteracy; OER; collaboration, critical thinking;
open educational practices
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doi: 10.18278/ijoer.2.1.11