OER: A Win for ELA Students!

OER is something I committed to exploring a couple years ago for two ELA classes I regularly teach. I had realized (a) I had compiled dozens of free resources for my F2F students on Talon already – I’m a flipped classroom teacher, (b) textbook costs were particularly consequential for our ELA students – they incur large amounts of debt in ELA before even entering into their major coursework, and (c) as an instructor within higher education, I had a duty to consider reducing unnecessary costs, and the ability to perhaps do something about it, at least on a small scale. 

But textbooks, particularly language learning textbooks, exist and are used for good reason, right? Most are theoretically sound and save teachers huge amounts of time; for me, they largely support the SLOs for my courses and contain ready-made resources (namely listening activities and videos, resources I myself cannot easily create). Should I proceed? Would the integrity of the course be compromised? Would OER be able to align with the SLOs, support language learning in a theoretically sound way, and offer ample ancillary materials that would save me time? I had an eye on these questions as I began searching for, evaluating, and adopting OER into my courses.

An early step in the process of OER adoption was realizing I didn’t have to “switch” my main textbook for another OER or free textbook. OER can be a collection of textbooks, and I could select pages within each as I pleased. Also, OER doesn’t have to be text-for-text replacement; it can include a variety of free resources. So, for me, this meant I needed to evaluate what I already had living on Talon in terms of ancillary materials that supported classroom instruction. For my two classes, which were speaking and listening proficiency-focused, these largely included a quite-unorganized collection of YouTube videos, VOD documentaries, articles, and more that I had found over the years and had up for my students to access in a supplementary way. Time here, then, was spent examining the purpose of these resources and working to organize them better. They were free, but are the creators going to be around next year? Do the links still work? Are they “evergreen” (can they be used semester-after-semester)? Can I download them and upload them to Talon, with credit to the source, to avoid broken links in the future? If students did not have their paid textbook, would they still be appropriate for students? Do they actually replace the role of the textbook; that is, do they present new information or provide practice with information already presented? Are there other materials I would need to locate? Is the role of literacy and reading within my courses met with these existing resources if I removed the textbook?

Generally, it’s hard to say goodbye to things that have served a purpose, and the same was true here. As I attempted to address those questions, some things stayed, and others went. Practically, it helped me to have a blank Talon DEV shell and to build the weeks/themes first, then decide if the existing materials “made the cut” as opposed to trying to rework an existing complete Talon shell. 

Meanwhile, the other moving part of OER adoption was actually finding textbooks or print materials to replace the physical textbook. I had several OER banks or databases from colleagues and workshops, but a simple Google search was useful, too. A major challenge was finding resources for the field of ESL. There aren’t many! However, because we teach the English language by way of teaching content (i.e. one of my courses, Level 4 Presentations, involves building English proficiency through students learning how to give simple speeches in public – the other, L5 Culture & Conversations builds advanced-level speaking skills through talking about U.S. history and culture), I was able to procure some great resources aimed a early college students or even high school students. In other words, broadening the fields into public speaking or U.S. history targeting younger students resulted in some visual-rich, linguistically-simplified resources I could use with my English language learners. 

Resources also didn’t have to be textbooks, nor did I have to commit to only one textbook, as I mentioned before. In my L5 Culture class, I technically now have five OER textbooks, parts of each embedded within the weeks/units as they are appropriate. OER resources were also news articles I found, Kirkwood links (i.e. Career Coach and links to schedule appointments with career counselors), PDFs, Word docs, PowerPoints, YouTube videos, and images. 

I also spend a good deal of time recording and developing instructional materials myself either full-on or in small ways. These largely helped “fill the gaps” between my OER materials, the SLOs for the course, and my own expectations for students and their specific needs. For example, I did several audio and video lectures to target listening comprehension, help explain or clarify important concepts, and teach new skills. I wrote by hand several Talon “pages” (technically called “Create a File”) containing explanations, supplemental vocabulary, and instructions, and more. I made PowerPoints, Word docs, checklists, and more.

During the aforementioned steps, my filter was always on: how did this source support the SLOs for the course? Where would I put it? How would it scaffold toward subsequent outcomes or content? This challenge was reduced by already having a strong scope and sequence that utilized backwards planning (or backways design) and that outlined the themes/units of the course sequentially over time. With that piece logically, and logistically, in place, it was just a matter of “plugging” OER resources into the week/unit modules on Talon.

It was time intensive, but in the end, my two ELA courses now fully utilize OER and my students will incur zero cost for materials! This is a huge win for ELA students. Because I was able to really control through selection and customization of my course materials, and made time to do so, I feel the integrity of the course materials was not only maintained, but actually improved.