Internet Learning Volume 6, Number 2, Fall 2017/Winter 2018 | Page 48

Access to Information Doesn’t Have to Come with a Pretty Cover and a Price Tag
of time when trying to find the most
stable links and obscure resources. As
Clobridge (2015) noted, “libraries at
many universities and community colleges
such as Arizona State University,
the Washtenaw Community College in
Michigan, and Temple University provide
resources to help faculty find OERs
to use in their courses and are including
LibGuides and websites about OERs
and open textbooks” (p. 69). Often, librarians
can assume some of the burden
and responsibility of searches for us.
Step Four: Work with the
Copyright Team
Copyright is frequently more complicated
than it first seems. Working with
a copyright team is a crucial step in the
OER transition process. Different copyright
rules, or the way the government
and courts interpret those rules, seems
to change fairly frequently. In addition,
there are different types of Creative
Commons licenses: some allow modifications,
and others do not. Rather than
trying to figure out whether we can use
ten pages, an entire chapter, or 10% of a
particular book, we defer to the experts
on these issues. We prefer to follow the
letter of the law and avoid making any
mistakes. For example, it can be tempting
to link to another page that has
scholarly works available for download.
However, we avoid linking to any page
that could possibly lead to copyright violations.
Step Five: Adjust Lessons
The last major step was to revisit and review
course lessons within the LMS to
make sure any gaps created as a result
of removing textbooks were addressed
with new content accordingly. We were
fortunate that we had removed publisher
test banks and presentations years
ago from courses that had them. Most
of our lessons were already written in
a way that laid out the fundamental information
students need to meet course
objectives. For example, our theory
class has lesson content that reviews
major theories in the field. Now, rather
than having students read a textbook
chapter about major theorists, students
read works authored by them. This is
an improvement since we want our students
to learn to engage with the literature.
We did, however, have to focus
more on connecting the readings within
the lessons in a way that we would not
have had to previously with a packaged
textbook. In other words, we put a great
deal more time into writing the lectures/
lessons. Some professors complain that
writing lessons within the online class
without being able to depend on a text
is as much work as writing their own
textbook. However, we have not found
that to be the case. The way that professors
design their lessons depends on
the learning platform in use and could
range from a PowerPoint presentation
to something more engaging such as an
interactive website. While this may require
more upfront work in the initial
course design, well-chosen materials
and subject matter expertise provide
dynamic presentation of information
that enhances students’ understanding
of course content.
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