Publishing student-authored Open Education Resources (OERs)

Marja Bakermans, Associate Teaching Professor, Biology & Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary & Global Studies

2020-2021

Project Description

The project explores the assets available across WPI (networks, infrastructure, funding and initiatives, as well as course offerings) that can support an Environmental and Sustainability Studies concentration in the human dimensions of renewable energy transition. The outcomes of the project will include potential cross university research collaborations and projects and initiatives, course offerings, and a Faculty Learning Community proposal.

As part of a broader strategy to incorporate open education resources and rethink the role of students as active knowledge producers beyond our classroom, >90 students became co-authors in two books. As a WPI Global Lab Faculty Fellow, I was afforded the time and support to edit and publish Climate Lessons: Environmental, Social, Local, written by first-year students in the GPS: Climate Change and Extinctions Stories, a collaborative text between two courses, GPS: Extinctions and BB1045-Biodiversity. These open texts are licensed under a Creative Commons License and available in several locations, like OER Commons, the Open Textbook Library, and the Digital WPI library.

highlight of your experience

The Climate Lessons text was the first resource on the WPI Gordon Library labeled as an OER (open education resource), and it was the most-viewed source on WPI in 2021.