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Insights and Lessons Learned from Engineering OER Authors

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

July 12, 2024

Conference Session

Engineering Libraries Division (ELD) Technical Session 2

Tagged Division

Engineering Libraries Division (ELD)

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/47632

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Paper Authors

biography

Jacob Preston Moore Pennsylvania State University, Mont Alto Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-7513-5979

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Jacob Moore is an Associate Professor of Engineering at Penn State Mont Alto. He has a PhD in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech and a Bachelors and Masters in Mechanical Engineering. His research interests include open educational resources, concept mapping, and student assessment techniques

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biography

Daniel W Baker PhD P.E. Colorado State University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-3199-3992

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Daniel Baker, Ph.D. PE is a Teaching Associate Professor and is the primary instructor for the on-campus and online sections of CIVE 260 Statics and CIVE 261 Dynamics at Colorado State University. He has a keen interest in active learning and has a partic

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Abstract

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are freely available online for anyone to use, modify, and share. OER have the potential to enhance engineering education by providing access to high-quality, diverse, and relevant content for students and instructors. However, OER are currently only used by a small segment of engineering courses, including those of both authors who have written and continue to support OER textbooks for their courses. Authoring OER materials is a challenging and time-consuming process that requires specific skills, motivations, and support. In addition to the considerable amount of work involved, the scarcity of engineering OER authors can make the process of developing and maintaining these resources a lonely endeavor full of unanswered questions. This paper seeks to address some of these questions and to offer advice and guidance to engineering faculty members who are considering or have just started the process of writing their own OER.

To better understand the experiences and perspectives of engineering OER authors, we conducted semi-structured interviews with faculty members who have created and published OER across various engineering disciplines. Through this interview process, the authors seek to answer questions such as: What drove you to author your own OER? What kinds of faculty members are authoring OER? What resources were available to help you? What kinds of people helped you along the way, and what could they offer? How were these activities considered as part of the promotion or faculty review process? The interview results were then evaluated for trends. Finally, insights and recommendations for prospective authors of OER engineering content are summarized. We hope our findings can inform and inspire current and prospective engineering OER authors and guide institutions and organizations aiming to foster a culture of OER in engineering education.

Moore, J. P., & Baker, D. W. (2024, June), Insights and Lessons Learned from Engineering OER Authors Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47632

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