This week, we hear from Uma Kumar, Lecturer in the Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies.
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What motivated you do adopt/adapt/create open educational resources in your work?
I wanted to make my course material available to all students so that they could take GERM 426, a course on the Literature of the Holocaust without having to worry about the cost of the materials. The aim was to also support different learning styles and narrow down relevant materials.
Can you tell us about the open education projects you have been working on?
This semester students are working on the Significance of Artefacts for studying the Holocaust. Students will write an essay of at least 1500 words in length by choosing two artefacts from the collection of Holocaust-related artefacts that are available online. The essays will be posted on UBC Blogs in a course website with the prior consent of the students. The project will be available on UBC Blogs as Open Educational Resources (OER) for others to use, revise and remix for their own teaching and learning purposes, without cost. Discussions about student intellectual property and selecting license will occur and, should the students choose not to openly share their content, alternative project plans will be developed. The essays can be adapted to fit individual teaching objectives and provide significant, contextualized materials for all students learning about the Holocaust and the literature of the Holocaust.
What benefits have you seen from using open educational resources in the classroom?
Students are happy that they do not have to spend hundreds of dollars on course materials. Students who post their work online as part of an OER source are happy that their scholarship is viewed as important and that they can share their research with others in society.
What was the biggest challenge you faced and how did you overcome it?
It’s important to get copyright for the materials posted online on Library Online Course Reserves (LOCR) through the library on time. Hence, one has to plan the course and the reading materials well in advance and make sure that they are all available before the beginning of the semester.
Do you have any advice for other faculty developing OER?
Please make your course materials and other media available through Library Online Course Reserves (LOCR) so that students can save hundreds of dollars. Please share papers and projects that students write as OER for others to use, revise and remix for their own teaching and learning purposes, without cost.
Is there anything else you’d like to add about OER at UBC?
I’m very happy that I was nominated as a UBC OER Champion (2019). The OER Application Rapid Innovation Grant awarded to me will help me and my students who are partners in my project make available their scholarship as part of an open education resource. I am very grateful for all the support given to me by the OER team including Erin Fields.
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Thank you, Uma, for taking the time to participate!
