This week, we hear from M.V. Ramana, Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA)
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What motivated you do adopt/adapt/create open educational resources in your work?
There are two motivations. The first and foremost is that I like to teach very interdisciplinary courses where I draw upon a range of literatures. There is no book that has everything that I want to cover. So if I had to use books, I would have to use many different books, and just assign one or two chapters from each. I don’t want to do that. The second motivation is that I don’t want to have students spend money on (expensive) books when they already have lots of expenditures already.
What benefits have you seen from using open educational resources in the classroom?
Apart from meeting the kind of course I am interested in teaching, the big benefit with using many papers and articles and book chapters as readings is that it allows me to be flexible and revise the syllabus and reading list even in the middle of the course and tailor what I am teaching to the interests of the students. I couldn’t do that if I had a fixed textbook so easily.
What was the biggest challenge you faced and how did you overcome it?
The biggest challenge is that developing such a course takes a lot of time. I have to at least skim through a dozen readings before I choose one. The only way to deal with that is to lose sleep and drink lots of coffee. 😊 I also hired a couple of students to trial read some of these readings to help me decide.
Do you have any advice for other faculty developing OER?
Plan early and use the library staff
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Thank you Ramana for taking the time to participate and answer what questions you were able to!
