​

OER Praxis: Optimizing Access in Prison

Presented by Alec Griffin, ABD and Peter Fulks, PhD, supported by Michelson 20MM Foundation

What is Michelson 20MM Foundation?

Pathways from Prison to College: California’s Best Practices (2022)

Key Points for This Training

• Understanding OER, CORs, SLOs, syllabi, Faculty autonomy and academic freedom.
• Providing meaningful content with or without formal texts through rigorous reflection and attempting transformational.
• Interest based teaching.
• Assessments that match the content and modality.
• Fulfilling academic freedom, mission of Rising Scholars, and translating impacts to main campus.

OER/ZTC/LTCWhat is it?

California Education Codes

78052 (ZTC Grant)

66406.9 (ZTC Coding)

= Less than $30

California Education Code 78052(a)(4): “Open educational resources” means high-quality teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released pursuant to an intellectual property license that permits their free use and repurposing by others, and may include other resources that are legally available and free of cost to students. Open educational resources include, but are not limited to, full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, faculty-created content, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.

Academic Senate for California Community Colleges OERI

Amaral, J. (2018). From textbook affordability to transformative pedagogy: Growing an OER community. OER: A field guide for academic librarians, 51.

​

Edwards, K. E. (Host). (2021, September 29). Better Serving Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Students. (No. 61) [Audio podcast episode]. In Student Affairs NOW.

​

Meiman, S., & Andrisse, S. (2024). Prison Education Landscape Mass Incarceration Facts, Theory of Change, and a Causal Relationship between Education and Employment. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Prison Education.

​

Walsh, A. J. (2020). Removing barriers: textbook affordability and OER at Sinclair community college. Reference services review, 48(3), 385-396.

​

Wilkinson, Z. (2024) The prevalence of textbook affordability and OER initiatives at ARL libraries, The Journal of Academic Librarianship,Volume 50, Issue 4, 2024.

​

​

​

​

OER Access does not exclusively mean a transactional approach.

​

Reflect:

• Am I transactional or transformational?
• Does democratizing access with poor quality material fulfill my role?
• Is it too much work?

The Dreaded C.O.R.

• Where do we access?
• When was it last revised?
• Are OER texts and COR incongruent?
• When is the right time to make the adoption?
• How does OER implementation impact modalities of instruction, assessments, texts and other critical information?

​

​

Student Learning Outcomes

• SLOs are how we determine the course has met the intended goal
• Following the SLOs and creating appropriate assessments is how you maintain rigor and we maintain a quality program
• With correspondence (in emergencies, etc.), SLOs should be a major factor in guiding your course content.
• SLOs are not secret, students should have a clear expectation set at the start of the term.
• If assessments don’t address a specific SLO, then it is essentially busywork so manage that accordingly

​

Resources:

• ASCCC OER Initiative
• Chancellor’s Office OER
• Michelson 20MM Foundation OER
• AB 1809 Language
• American Association of Colleges and Universities IOER

Research guides: Praxis

Syllabi

It is required to give a syllabus in your class

Additional informational letters of introduction are welcome

What is required in the Syllabus? (i.e. check canvas out)

Further Considerations: Statements of anti-racism, inclusion, equitable resource requirements, clear timeline expectations, simplified grading structures, etc

Template Info: www.transformativeeducationcollective.com/files

Meaningful Content

• What is the essence of your content?
• In the correspondence modality requires certain modifications that will require additional preparation
• There will be content limitations that we should all consider, some logistical, some our responsibility of not disseminating incendiary information
• Social Justice discussions and information (in the wake of current social issues)
• How do you ensure information (especially data) remains up to date? Assignments for students to update text?

Assessment Modification

​

Check with your department Chair (or don’t)

Understanding Formative and Summative Assessment

Creating Quality Assessment Types: (Include SLO’s into Assessment)

500 word essays that include appropriate concepts, terms, and theories with a rubric provided which you then score as part of the communication with the students

1500 word Research Papers using academic journal articles provided throughout the semester (these journals compile as their own reference library to choose from)

​

Assessments

Formative Assessments:

1. Meant to check for understanding.
2. Do not Need to Be Graded
3. Questions for Students to Track learning
4. Terms and Concepts
5. Self Guided Quizzes
6. Could be the bulk of assessments

Summative Assessments:

1. Big Ticket Items
2. Midterms
3. Finals
4. Research Papers
5. Unit Exams
6. Rubrics are Useful Here

Substantive Feedback

​

Source and great read:

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED511170.pdf

​

Self-reflection is the heart of self-regulation. Students are less likely to be defensive if they judge themselves. Hence, an effective way to impart self-regulation among students is to provide them opportunities to reflect on their own performance (Boud, 1995; McDonald & Boud, 2003)

Rubrics: For a Variety of Assignments

• Fair
• Equitable
• Reduces Workload
• Provides meaningful Feedback
• Tip: Adapt what you might already have in your Canvas course
• Important: Make sure you adapt your rubric to reflect the actual assignment

​

• Here is a sample PDF Fillable Rubric for an APA Research Paper

​

​

Seven Principles of Good Feedback

1. Helps clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, expected standards);
2. Facilitates the development of self-assessment (reflection) in learning;
3. Delivers high quality information to students about their learning;
4. Encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning;
5. Encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem;
6. Provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired performance;
7. Provides information to teachers that can help in shaping the teaching

Workshop

OER is praxis.

Reflect Constantly:

• Did that module satisfy my intended SLO
• Identifying gaps and needs in material
• STUDENT FEEDBACK
• Updates, new data sets, integration of current research

Thank You for your time

Let’s go transform lives