International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 172

International Journal of Open Educational Resources
growth of open education initiatives
(Braddlee & VanScoy, 2019; Pierce,
2013), and indeed the group was part of
the original conversation around OERs
at ISU. With the ISU instructional designers
on board, the program revision
began in earnest with a look at the
Blackboard course content.
Content changes
To kick off the process, the Electronic
Resources & Copyright Librarian identified
areas within the current Blackboard
course modules that needed revision
in specific areas including issues
of copyright and attribution, defining
and identifying OER, and providing
guidance on successful incorporation
of the selected materials into a course.
The librarian divided the modules
amongst the team to assess and suggest
redesign elements. Areas that saw
significant revision during this process
included the copyright and licensing
lesson and the lesson on searching and
identifying OER materials. Beyond
specific modules, work was done on assessment
materials within each lesson
and a new rubric for OER assessment
was incorporated to provide further
guidance both during and beyond the
program.
The copyright module redesign
was a particular sticking point for
the team, as the instructional design
group’s preference was to cover all areas
of copyright online beyond the limited
scope of OER. The Electronic Resources
& Copyright Librarian had to work
with the design team to help focus the
materials in a more direct way around
the successful engagement of OERs in
the classroom. The librarian noted that
significant demands on teaching faculty
time meant they needed to be able to
quickly orient themselves around issues
of OER and copyright and then confidently
move on to the course-building
process in quick succession. Additionally,
the instruction had to be focused
enough to ensure that the information
could be utilized successfully by faculty
beyond a single course conversion.
The lesson on defining and identifying
OER was revised to include the explosion
in content types and resources that
had emerged since the ISU OER program’s
inception. Content was added
around multimedia resources, identification,
and attribution. Along with lesson
content, module assessment pieces
(SoftChalk quizzes and Blackboard
journal entries) were also modified to
support the new content. Another significant
change to the program was the
introduction of an OER-specific rubric
as part of the course conversion process,
adopted from the Achieve model
(Achieve, 2011). Originally created to
assist the K-12 environment, the rubric
was adapted for higher education and
specifically for ISU. The rubric incorporates
accessibility, usability, copyright
compliance, assessment, and objective
alignment goals to provide faculty with
a lens through which they can review
the incorporation of OER materials
beyond a single course. Content revisions
identified and applied, the second
phase of the course redesign discussion
was initiated: designation of responsibilities
in the course workflow.
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