International Open Access Week (October 24-30, 2022) is a time to recognize free, accessible information online and to inspire scholars to engage in this advantageous model in scholarship and research. The term Open Access refers to scholarly information that is available digitally free of charge and without other access barriers. Some teaching and learning materials, referred to as Open Educational Resources (OER), are published online under flexible licenses called Creative Commons Licenses that allow for sharing and tailoring the information. This includes textbooks – Yes, we said FREE textbooks. Each day this week we will feature a UMass Dartmouth faculty member who uses OER in their classroom or publishes scholarly work under a Creative Commons license. Today’s UMD faculty member is an instructor who has adopted an Openstax textbook, a digital book which is completely free to students.

David Kagan is a professor of physics who has taught at UMass Dartmouth for about 10 years. The foundational concepts of physics don’t change much over time – gravity and magnetism are quite reliable – but student learning styles and modes of teaching continue to evolve. So to keep students engaged, Prof. Kagan opts for dynamic teaching resources, sometimes replacing a standard reading assignment with a video or seeking interactive ways for students to do assessment and learn the material. In class, Prof. Kagan relies heavily on content that he creates himself such as slides and notes. Like many faculty members, teaching during the pandemic accelerated Prof. Kagan’s multimodal approach because one has to get creative when trying to reach students via Zoom. Prof. Kagan uses a trusted resource from Openstax that carries a Creative Commons Attribution License v4.0, and can be shared and adapted. Students need only visit the website and download the book to have access to the required reading. This OER option is comparable in content to the textbooks by Halliday and Resnick that have historically been the cornerstones of introductory physics classes.

Kudos to Prof. Kagan for seeking cost-savings for students and a dynamic classroom experience! For more information about OpenStax textbooks, check out their website https://openstax.org/.

If you are a faculty member who wants to know more about OER, please reach out to our Scholarly Communication Librarian, Emma Wood.

International Open Access Week (October 24-30, 2022) is a time to recognize free, accessible information online and to inspire scholars to engage in this advantageous model in scholarship and research. The term Open Access refers to scholarly information that is available digitally free of charge and without other access barriers. Some teaching and learning materials, referred to as Open Educational Resources (OER), are published online under flexible licenses called Creative Commons Licenses that allow for sharing and tailoring the information. This includes textbooks – Yes, we said FREE textbooks. Each day this week we will feature a UMass Dartmouth faculty member who uses OER in their classroom or publishes scholarly work under a Creative Commons license. Today’s UMD faculty member is an educator who uses Open Education Resources in all of her Management and Marketing classes.

Marilyn Ardito is a professor in the Charlton College of Business, and she has been with the university for about three years. Prof. Ardito does not require a traditional textbook for any of the classes she teaches. Rather she opts for free, openly licensed textbooks available through OpenStax which saves her students money and ensures that everyone has the course material on day one. Openstax is a publisher who’s mission is “to improve educational access and learning for everyone.” They accomplish this by producing material for high school and higher education that is accessible online without paywall or special credentials required for access. Prof. Ardito made the move toward adopting Open Education Resources in place of expensive textbooks in her previous teaching position at Providence College. She recognized the ethical dilemma that traditional textbook publishing creates with frequent publication of costly new editions. Further, Prof. Ardito adopted OER textbooks to disengage with textbook bias.

International Open Access Week (October 24-30, 2022) is a time to recognize Open Access (OA), and to inspire scholars to engage in this advantageous model in scholarship and research. The term Open Access refers to scholarly information that is available digitally, free of charge, and without other access barriers. Some teaching and learning materials, referred to as Open Educational Resources (OER), are published online under flexible licenses called Creative Commons Licenses that allow for sharing and remixing. This includes textbooks – Yes, we said FREE textbooks. Each day this week we will feature a UMass Dartmouth faculty member who uses OER in their classroom or publishes scholarly work under a Creative Commons license. Prof. Elisabeth Buck has experience with OER in the classroom as well as Open Access publishing.

Elisabeth Buck is a professor in the English & Communication Department, and she directs the Writing & Multiliteracy Center where UMD students receive free tutoring services. Something that students will not find in any of Prof. Buck’s courses such as ENL 352 Public Relations Writing is an expensive required textbook. Prof. Buck has made the leap to Open Educational Materials (OER), and saves students money on their bookstore bills by assigning free, openly licensed materials in her classes. In addition, she is author of a book called Open-Access, Multimodality, and Writing Center Studies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) which was nominated for the 2018 International Writing Centers Association Outstanding Book Award. Chapter Five of the text is available open-access. We commend Prof. Buck for her OER efforts in the classroom and in academic publishing.

UMass Dartmouth staff, faculty, and students can access the complete e-book of Open-Access, Multimodality, and Writing Center Studies using this library link. The library also retains a non-circulating print copy of this book and other faculty publications in the Archives & Special Collections – UMass Dartmouth | Claire T. Carney Library.

International Open Access Week (October 24-30, 2022) is a time to recognize Open Access (OA), and to inspire scholars to engage in this advantageous model in scholarship and research. The term Open Access refers to scholarly information that is available digitally free of charge and without other access barriers. Some teaching and learning materials, referred to as Open Educational Resources (OER), are available for free online under flexible licenses called Creative Commons Licenses that allow for sharing and remixing. This includes textbooks – Yes, we said FREE textbooks. Each day this week we will feature a UMass Dartmouth faculty member who uses OER in their classroom or publishes scholarly work under a Creative Commons license. Today’s faculty member is a person who does both.

Shouhong Wang is a Commonwealth Professor of Decision & Information Sciences who has co-authored an open education textbook, and adopted it in his classroom for the past seven years. He has also published extensively on the challenges, strategies, and benefits of open education resources in higher education. We commend Prof. Shouhoung Wang for his contributions to the scholarly literature in open education and for the innovation that he has brought to the classroom. Take a look at some of Prof. Wang’s publications below, and if ever you need help accessing an article or traversing a paywall, please reach out to the library for assistance.

• Wang, S. & Wang, H. (2016). A strategy of open educational resources (OER) to solve the textbook cost crisis for higher education. Journal of Teaching and Education, 5(2), 243-250.
• Wang, S. & Wang, H. (2017). Adoption of open educational resources (OER) textbook for the introductory information systems course. Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning, 32(3), 224-235.
• Wang, S. & Wang, H. (2018). Sustainable open educational resources (OER) in higher education: A stakeholder analysis approach. Journal of Teaching and Education, 8(2), 119–128.
• Bourgeois, D. T., Smith, J. L. Wang, S., & Mortati, J. (2019). Information Systems for Business and Beyond. (licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License)
• Wang, S. (2019) Business Models of Sustainable Open Educational Resources (OER). International Journal of Applied Management Theory and Research 1(2), 1-16
• Wang, S., & Wang, H. (2020). Structuring actions for open educational resources adoption. International Journal of Higher Education and Sustainability, 3(1), 18-33.
• Wang, S. (2021). Adoption and adaptation of open educational resources: Models of decision-making and action planning. The International Journal of Open Educational Resources, 4(1), 171-186.