Open Educational Resources Symposium

Dr. Michelle Smith (Cornell University), the 23-24 Hanson Center Visiting Scholar, will present on her research and initiatives using open educational resources. As part of this session we will also hear from the Lafayette Student Fellows on Open Education (Milka Ininahazwe '24 and Rachel Kimball '26) and professional librarians, Kylie Bailin and Janna Avon, who are involved with Lafayette’s Course Affordability and Open Education Resources Initiative. They will describe their efforts to improve affordability and accessibility of course materials at Lafayette.

Abstract for Dr. Smith’s Presentation

Active learning instructional practices increase undergraduate student learning and decrease the failure rate.  One way to promote active learning is to support groups of instructors in measuring student thinking, iteratively designing active learning activities, evaluating student learning outcomes, and publishing the classroom activities in peer-reviewed journals as Open Educational Resources (OERs).  For authors, these publications offer new opportunities to collaborate and provide evidence of a commitment to using active learning instructional techniques. For the broader community, creating a set of well-vetted activities, saves other instructors time and encourages the use of active learning instructional practices.  

Dr. Smith will highlight projects where instructors worked together to identify student thinking, develop classroom activities, and collectively publish their work. She will also address questions, such as: 1) How can we engage instructors from multiple institutions in the development of activities that positively affect student understanding? and 2) How does involvement in this process influence instructor interest in trying new instructional practices?