I joined this cohort to take Effective Learning 115 through the OER process. I was teaching that course in Spring. I taught about 2 weeks of the course using an OER material but my mind boggled on the rest. It wasn’t so much that I couldn’t find materials as I wasn’t sure how I wanted to restructure the course once I freed myself from a text.
Over the summer I changed my focus to College Prep Reading (80), which has more limited focus but much curriculum in common with EL115. I am teaching a hybrid section this fall, with no textbook.
I have restructured the course. In the past I assigned a text that describes how to do each reading skill with drill and practice of components, plus a reader with sample college text chapters to practice combined skills.
Instead, I am using demonstration screencasts to teach skills and prezis for concepts. I will be asking students to video class demonstrations as well so I will have a full library for students to choose from. There are sample texts online to use for integrated skills practice and the LCC library hold current texts behind the reference desk so that students can see them and I can pdf portions that show relevant features. I also have samples of work for a “touch box” (an idea I am borrowing from LCC’s Anatomy and Physiology “touch room.”)
Here is my OER screencast.
Thanks to Jen for continuing support and encouragement. Typing the words “Textbook: None” brought me great joy and has already brought joy to my students.