P116T210023
Our project focuses on the collaborative creation of open educational resources (OER) in the form of three robotics textbooks. Though there are many arms of the project, we want to highlight here the undergraduate students working with the education research team, the graduate students assisting with content authoring, and the contributions these students are bringing to the project.
Our multi-institutional, collaborative project includes students working on the education research team who are integrated into the textbook development and design process. These students use their background knowledge and skills to review the chapters from the authoring team, specifically looking for opportunities to incorporate learner-centeredness, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and ADA practices to make the textbooks more accessible to all. In addition, graduate students are assisting with the content authoring process in collaboration with faculty members with research and teaching experience in Robotics.
In our video, the undergraduate students will describe what learner-centeredness and UDL are and why these principles are so important in the design of the textbooks. A graduate student helping to author content will explain the authoring team's approach to creating instructional materials from content knowledge.
Leah Wiitablake
Graduate Research Assistant
Welcome and thank you for your interest in our project!
The uniqueness of our project is embedded in the collaboration of faculty and staff with undergraduate and graduate students participating in the development of the three open textbooks.
In the video, the students explain their approach to writing (graduate student authors) and reviewing (undergraduate reviewers) the textbooks.
For more information, please visit the project website: https://libraries.clemson.edu/teaching/oer/oer-development-projects/co-dream-oer/
We welcome all questions and feedback!
D. Matthew Boyer
Cathryn Tuttle
Cathryn Tuttle
This is a great project! As a high school teacher, I'm curious about how this idea can be adapted at the high school level in various STEM classes. I wonder how undergraduate authors may be able to inform open-access resources for high school students. I am particularly interested in online resources to help students who have complex lives and can't always be present in class.
Leah Wiitablake
D. Matthew Boyer
Leah Wiitablake
Graduate Research Assistant
Hi Cathryn,
Great question! I think you could definitely take this approach with high school students. We really wanted to hear what the students have to say from their perspective, and so made sure to create a space where they can be very honest about the materials under review. We had lots of open discussions about their experiences in classes, what kinds of pedagogy they personally find helpful, and structured it using the UDL guidelines so they could identify in what ways their experience could be improved. I think you could take the same approach with high school students!
Here is the link to the UDL guidelines: https://udlguidelines.cast.org/
As far as how undergraduate authors can inform open-access resources, I think their perspectives and experiences with high school and seeing how resources are used set them up to have great insight on what would have been the most useful and effective for them. Combining their thoughts with current high school students who can help refine ways of accessing materials and the types of resources would be amazing!
D. Matthew Boyer
Stephen Alkins Ph.D.
Carolyn White
Mindy hsiao
I second Cathryn's question! This is such a wonderful idea, and you can see how invested the undergraduate reviewers are. Is there a way for this model to be applied beyond the undergraduate-level for K-12 grade levels? If so, how would you have to adjust the reviewing process?
Leah Wiitablake
D. Matthew Boyer
Leah Wiitablake
Graduate Research Assistant
Hi Mindy,
I absolutely think there is! We really focused on opening the floor for conversation and welcome the students’ thoughts and ideas. I think the same approach could be taken with K-12 grade levels. When the students know you value what they have to say and their experiences, it generates some really great conversations!
I’m not sure the reviewing process would have to be modified too much beyond scaling down the materials to make sure they’re relevant to each grade level. One really awesome outcome was that the students could take our conversations and identify not only potential roadblocks to their own learning in their individual classes, but they could also identify ways that would improve the learning process, usually in a way that would benefit not just themselves but the other students in the course as well.
D. Matthew Boyer
Stephen Alkins Ph.D.
Denice Blair
This is a very interesting model! I can see how designing the resources with input and feedback from the users mirrors the way many of us get information for learning in real life. Instructional web pages, videos, apps, and other tools usually are not usually static - they get evaluated and updated in response to users' needs. I'm just imagining the good ways textbooks created this way would enhance learning.
Leah Wiitablake
D. Matthew Boyer
Leah Wiitablake
Graduate Research Assistant
Hi Denice,
Exactly! And because we’ve created this space where the students know they can talk freely about their opinions and what helps them, they also generate some incredible solutions that many of us would not have thought of on our own. If there was a way to allow students to give feedback on other textbooks and to give ideas of ways to improve, it would be amazing!
D. Matthew Boyer
Stephen Alkins Ph.D.
Diversity, Equity, Access, Inclusion, and Belonging Officer
Thank you for the presentation here. I agree with the previous sentiments about how intriguing this is. I appreciate the use of CAST-developed UDL guidelines for accessibility; the next step would be thinking of ways students who may not have access to digital resources can still take advantage of these textbooks (e.g., rural communities, English learners in K-12, etc.). As part of your diverse contributions have you also thought about infusing indigenous epistemologies or afrofuturistic frameworks within engineering as a way for seeing the commonalities and differences between western and indigenous perspectives of robotics and engineering practices. This may also help generate more inclusion and interest in STEM, particularly for marginalized groups, to elucidate the diversity and ties to innovation and social justice in robotics.
Also, how have your textbook editors and content providers aligned or contended with Next Generation Science Standards? As part of the textbook creation, were they used to develop the chapters, etc.? Have you also incorporated or proposed any novel forms of assessments for learners?
Leah Wiitablake
D. Matthew Boyer
Leah Wiitablake
Graduate Research Assistant
Hi Dr. Alkins,
We are actually working on some of this. There will be a print version of the textbook in addition to an online version so students who do not have access to reliable internet will still be able to utilize the materials. It is our land grant mission to incorporate rural communities, and we are attempting to reach these communities through the Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL) network and by working with a technical college.
As far as science standards, we are following the current curriculum for college at three different levels (technical college, undergraduate (4-year), and graduate). That being said, looking at pathways into college-level robotics from K-12 sounds like a great next step! This is a work in progress, and our team is working on developing different types of assessment.
D. Matthew Boyer
Gregory Goins
Professor and Chair
This is a great project! Student input and interaction is extremely important to their success, so this gives them the opportunity to fill in gaps that sometimes we as teachers and professors don't even realize are there sometimes. I would love to see more!
Leah Wiitablake
D. Matthew Boyer
Leah Wiitablake
Graduate Research Assistant
Thank you! We will have more coming soon.
D. Matthew Boyer
Kristin Flaming
Do you plan to continue to revise and review the textbooks on a rotation?
Are the UDL guidelines something that we could use to assess a current OER textbook to see how it aligns with it or do you need to start with the UDL guidelines and build the textbook?
Leah Wiitablake
D. Matthew Boyer
D. Matthew Boyer
Research Associate Professor
I laughed when I read your question because proposal and reality are definitely different in this case. Our intent was to be far more integrated during development, but we're currently siloed into discrete teams with a fairly linear review process. I'm hopeful this can change, as we're currently working out issues with the first textbook, but ideally, we'd be far more integrated, especially when substantial revisions are advised.
I think, again, ideally, the content authors would also be well-versed in UDL and learner-centered design; however, in our case, we have an instructional designer in addition to our undergrad reviewers who got quickly up-to-speed by using UDL and ADA as their lenses, using them almost like qualitative coding themes, if that makes any sense. We're still early in this process, but Leah and I get very excited about our discussions with the undergraduate student-researchers.
Kenne Dibner
Senior Program Officer
This is SO exciting to see, and I was particularly excited to see the level of participation from students at all levels. I wonder if you might share a little of your plans for disseminating/sharing the textbooks with the world once they are available? I'd love to be able to share this resource with others!
Leah Wiitablake
D. Matthew Boyer
D. Matthew Boyer
Research Associate Professor
Our intention is to use the PASCAL network for distribution in our state, connecting the technical college system with colleges and universities. Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries Clemson University Press will provide the resources under an OER-related imprint. There will also be a version on Educate Workforce as well. More soon!
Sanlyn Buxner
What a fantastic project! I look forward to seeing how this project is implemented and the model that can be used elsewhere.
Leah Wiitablake
D. Matthew Boyer
Leah Wiitablake
Graduate Research Assistant
Thank you! The students have done a fantastic job. We should have more updates soon!
D. Matthew Boyer
Lauren Bauman
This is such an exciting project!! I'm looking forward to taking a look at the textbook. I have a few questions about project logistics and a few questions about research surrounding this work.
Logistics wise, I'm curious about how you recruit graduate authors and undergraduate reviewers? Are they compensated for their work? I would also be interested to know more about the review process and general workflow of a project like this.
Research and implications wise, I'm curious if you've researched how this project has impacted the graduate students and undergraduates who participated in creating the textbook? Do they feel more confident with content? Have they benefited in other ways?
Really cool work! Thank you for sharing!
Leah Wiitablake
D. Matthew Boyer
D. Matthew Boyer
Research Associate Professor
Without saying too much about individuals, certain students receive course credit through an undergraduate research experience while others are employed as work-study, and our expectations vary based on that status. The graduate authors were chosen by the Robotics faculty, who are guiding content development. Anecdotally, the undergrads seem more interested in the learner-centered design aspects rather than the robotics content. We're intending to submit an ASEE 2023 proposal this fall based on learner-centered collaborative instructional design with the undergrads as co-authors. Our goal is a transferable process model, with attention to the important contextual distinctions that are impacting our current implementation across institutions.