OAT Awards, Spring 2019

Panagiotis Georgopoulos, Professor, School of Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Environmental Exposure Measurement and Assessment

The course will be organized in 10 quasi-self-contained modules. Course material for each module will be freely available for either download or online access through the course management system (Canvas) or the Libraries. It will consist of a set of slides and accompanying explanatory notes developed by the course instructors; relevant sections of public domain reports on environmental health issues, primarily developed by federal and international agencies; copies of peer-reviewed articles from scientific journals licensed through the Libraries; and a carefully compiled selection of links to relevant online material, including public domain databases and knowledge bases, images, and videos.

Taught: Fall 2019

10 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $1,900

Selim Cakmakli, Assistant Teaching Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, Economics

Principles of Microeconomics; Principles of Macroeconomics

Dr. Cakmakli has developed lecture notes which include content, learning objectives, keywords, a main manuscript, summary, and test-yourself part for each topic in the curriculum. These notes are updated with current materials, including new concrete examples, the latest economic data, and a PowerPoint presentation. Each lecture note is developed like a book chapter. All these materials are open to students and other colleagues.

Taught: Fall 2019; Spring 2020

150 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $37,500

E Duffy, Associate Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, Psychology

Introduction to Psychology; Method and Theory

Dr. Duffy will develop strategies and resources to enhance the classroom experience with open and affordable materials. He will create group activities and assignments that engage the text so the students feel it is an integral part of the course rather than a supplement. He plans to do additional research by reaching out to OAT library liaisons as well as other educators and reviewing the extant literature on best practices regarding open educational resources.

Taught: Fall 2019; Spring 2020

425 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $55,250

Carla Giaudrone, Associate Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, World Languages and Cultures

Spanish American Culture and Civilization

The course will be taught fully online for the first time this fall. The traditional textbook will be replaced with journal articles, book excerpts, and audiovisual materials that are licensed through the Libraries, open access, or freely available online. Dr. Giaudrone’s goal is to improve and expand the opportunities to learn about Spanish American cultures while practicing Spanish. This project will allow students to freely download, retain, and re-use materials for the course on topics such as the arts, ethnic heritage and diversity, urban and rural life of Spanish Americans, and cultural institutions (family life, education, religion, work, etc.). It will also reduce the cost of course-related materials for students by using open texts while enhancing efficiency and saving resources (such as paper).

Taught: Fall 2019

25 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $5,000

Haydeé Herrera, Associate Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, Mathematical Sciences

Abstract Algebra I

With the advancements in computing, applications which involve abstract algebra and discrete mathematics have become increasingly vital. The importance of applications such as coding theory and cryptography (among others) has grown significantly. Many science, engineering, and computer science students now elect to study abstract mathematics topics. While many projects involve the use of computers, the theoretical aspects of the subject still occupy a central role in instruction and lectures remain the most critical part of the course. Through the use of library and open and affordable resources, students will use textbook and alternate texts in PDF form to study the algebraic structures and develop their projects.

Taught: Fall 2019

10 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $650

Tracie Paulson, Assistant Teaching Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, Biology

Facts of Life

Professor Paulson will lower the cost of the fundamental text for this course by using an open resource textbook as a scaffold for the chapter materials. She will supplement the chapters with e-reserves from other open source resources from the Libraries. Additionally, streaming and/or documentary resources will be used to emphasize concepts.

Taught: Spring 2020; Summer 2020

175 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $24,500

Tyshaneka Saffold, Clinical Instructor, School of Nursing, Nursing

Community Health Nursing and Global Health

This course incorporates nursing, public health, and epidemiological theory and science in the study of community and global health. Emphasis is on health promotion, health maintenance, disease prevention, and cultural competence in the care of individuals, families, groups, and communities in their homes and in community settings. Using open and affordable resources will allow content to be taught using current articles and resources in place of a textbook. Following the model of flipping the classroom, every week students will be provided an article to read prior to class. For two weeks during the semester, they will be assigned to provide articles or learning materials for their peers. This will promote student engagement with the Libraries and reduce the fear of research.

Taught: Fall 2019; Spring 2020

300 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $48,000

Emily Wood, Co-Adjutant, College of Arts and Sciences, Psychology

Health Psychology

This will be Ms. Wood’s second course using open and affordable materials. She intends to employ a similar approach for this class. This includes the use of peer-reviewed journal articles, textbook excerpts, and various videos which delve into the overarching theories used in health psychology. The articles will examine both the traditional and most current theories within the subject.

Taught: Fall 2019

25 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $1,875

Patricia Akhimie, Associate Professor, School of Arts and Sciences–Newark, English

Shakespeare: Early Works

Dr. Akhimie’s goal is to remake the student experience of the Shakespeare class by offering a freely available, fully vetted, and scholarly edition of the playtexts. She will involve students in the creation of open source edited playtexts inspired by the preexisting format of the well-respected website, Internet Shakespeare. Students will create an edited playtext that attempts to capture that site’s authoritative vision. She intends to redesign the course around six complete editions now available through Internet Shakespeare which can be read online or downloaded for offline reading or printing.

Taught: Spring 2020

40 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $3,200

Roger Lalancette, Professor, School of Arts and Sciences–Newark, Chemistry

Xinbo Lau, Lecturer Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences–Newark, Chemistry, General Chemistry I

Dr. Lalancette and Dr. Lau will create free online quizzes, exams, and homework using Blackboard and Respondus. These can subsequently be used by any professor, any semester, in place of other quizzes requiring an expensive access code. Quizzes, exams, and homework will be used in conjunction with the free OpenStax chemistry textbook. The online quizzes program will allow students to self-assess at any time. They will receive immediate feedback, including the correct answer and solving process. An open discussion thread will be available where students can leave comments about the new quizzes. Exam outcomes will be compared to those of previous semesters.

Taught: Fall 2019; Winter 2020; Spring 2020; Summer 2020

1,020 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $76,500

Theodora Leontaridis, Part-time Lecturer, School of Arts and Sciences–Newark, Political Science

American National Government

Ms. Leontaridis will introduce a cost-free textbook to this course, Openstax's American Government. It is available online and can also be downloaded by students and used in a PDF format without access to the internet. The text is comprehensive and offers a wide variety of materials. It provides 17 chapters which can be edited and tailored to the needs of each course. Additional links for articles, video clips, or podcasts will be posted on Blackboard and can be accessed by students. All materials will be available in one place online which eliminates the need for paper.

Taught: Summer 2019; Fall 2019; Winter 2020; Spring 2020; Summer 2020

200 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $17,000

Srinivas Yerramsetti, Part-time Lecturer, School of Public Affairs and Administration, Public Affairs and Administration

Technology and Public Administration

This graduate-level course offers knowledge about the latest advances in the use of information and technologies in government. The course syllabus is designed to utilize journal articles from various applied fields of knowledge and other public sources like government websites to offer both theoretical knowledge and insights into real life practice. Podcasts, reports, and videos are also part of the instruction. All materials are either freely accessible through the Libraries or can be requested at no cost to the students. They will be organized into weekly modules in Blackboard which will become a one-stop resource for course material.

Taught: Summer 2019; Fall 2019; Spring 2020; Summer 2020

150 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $19,200

Joseph Casillas, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, Spanish & Portuguese

Introduction to Spanish Phonetics and Phonology

Dr. Casillas will create open and affordable materials with multiple access points for use in his Introduction to Spanish Phonetics and Phonology course. He champions open science, open access, and reproducible research through the use of free, cross-platform software. An open-source textbook and various interactive web applications will be used for the class. He will develop a website for additional resources. Together, these will replace the current textbooks and supplemental materials used in the past.

Taught: Spring 2020; Summer 2020

32 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $6,400

Jeffrey Dowd, Instructor, School of Arts and Sciences, Sociology

Introduction to Sociology; Social Problems and Race Relations

Dr. Dowd has taught all of his courses without the use of textbooks for several years. He intends to enrich the student experience through his design and development of a non-textbook course template specifically for these two courses. This consists of an adjustable syllabus with readings and videos, assessment materials (multiple choice tests, essays, and paper prompts), lecture slides, and active-learning exercises. His templates will create more context for students by explaining how readings from one topic can build an analytical skill to interpret another article.

Taught: Fall 2019; Winter 2020; Spring 2020; Summer 2020

1,080 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $0

Eduardo Herrera, Assistant Professor, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Music

Music 302

Dr. Herrera will contribute a chapter to a free, open access, multiauthor textbook on Latin American experimental music used in core classes for music majors. His chapter concerns the first time students encounter materials from Latinx and Latin American peoples, a population currently underrepresented in other texts. The textbook is curated by Open Access Musicology (OAM). Once published, the OAM project will make a wide range of scholarly work by experts in each subdiscipline freely available for use in the undergraduate classroom and beyond.

Taught: Spring 2020

66 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $6,600

Kenneth Sebastian Leon-Roosevelt, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, Latino and Caribbean Studies

Introduction to Criminal Justice; Black and Brown Bodies and Criminal Justice Systems

In the fall Dr. Leon-Roosevelt will pilot an open access textbook in his Introduction to Criminal Justice course. For Black and Brown Bodies and Criminal Justice Systems, he will continue to augment and update open access materials with additional library resources. Specifically, a formal “library research literacy” workshop/assessment will be incorporated into the course. This will prompt students to engage first-hand with the Libraries and learn the basics of navigating research- and reference-related resources. 

Taught: Fall 2019; Spring 2020

630 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $75,600

Peng Liu, Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, Asian Languages and Cultures

History of Chinese Literature: From Beginnings to 1300

Previously, students were required to purchase two textbooks for this course. Dr. Liu will now adopt the online version of the Cambridge History of China to replace those texts. This will slightly modify the content of the course by adding more detailed descriptions of the history of Chinese literature, thus enriching the student experience.

Taught: Fall 2019

30 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $3,200

Belinda McKeon, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, English

Introduction to Creative Writing

Professor McKeon will design a syllabus of texts for her creative writing students which consists of articles, essays, and works of literature, as well as multimedia materials freely available online or through the Libraries. Additionally, she will use Pressbooks to augment her existing syllabus (which already consists largely of freely available materials) to consist entirely of open access and affordable materials. She will provide links to the wealth of online literary sites which publish literature and literary analysis, including Literary Hub, the New Yorker, and the Paris Review, along with podcasts such as Lit Up and Playing On Air.

Taught: Spring 2020

44 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $1,100

Roy Montalvo, Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Arts and Sciences, Physics and Astronomy

Physics 203; Physics 204

This project, which cuts across the Physics department, will lend a better understanding of how the learning outcomes compare between the use of an established text book and a free one. The assumption is the approach with a free text will be simpler and cleaner. Knowing that all students, regardless of income, will have easy online access to the text will allow the instructors to set a consistent, realistic pace for the course. Online reading quizzes based on the relevant sections of the lesson plan will be developed to motivate students to immediately and consistently engage with the material.

Taught: Fall 2019; Winter 2020; Spring 2020; Summer 2020

2,160 students impacted per year | Projected savings per year:  $810,000

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