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Matt Leathen & Jennifer Chaytor

June 12, 1:00 – 4:30 PM, EDT

Open Educational Resources

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Organic Education Resources

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

What Are Open Educational Resources (OERs)?

Open Educational Resources

  • Educational materials in the public domain or under open licenses

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  • Freely used, adapted, and shared

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  • Formats: textbooks, labs, videos, quizzes, simulations

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

The Five R’s of OER

Open Educational Resources

  • Retain – Make, own, & control a copy

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  • Revise – Edit, adapt, & modify your copy

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  • Remix – Combine with other materials

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  • Reuse – Use your original or revised copy publicly

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  • Redistribute – Share original, revised, or remixed copy with others

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Examples of OERs in Chemistry

Open Educational Resources

  • LibreTexts Chemistry Library

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  • OpenStax Chemistry Textbook

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  • ChemCollective (Virtual Labs)

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  • PhET Interactive Simulations

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  • MIT OpenCourseWare – Chemistry

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Challenges Implementing OER

Open Educational Resources

  • Quality Assurance – Not all OER are peer-reviewed

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  • Time Investment – Finding and curating resources takes effort

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  • Technical Barriers – Platforms, formats, licensing confusion

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  • Limited Support – Accessibility tools, technical barriers

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  • Resistance to Change – Institutional and faculty inertia

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Tips and Support for Implementation

Open Educational Resources

  • Start small

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  • Collaborate with librarians, instructional designers, campus OER initiatives, grant opportunities

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  • Check licensing (CC-BY is the most flexible)

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  • Solicit student feedback early

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Course Development History – OChem 2

Open Educational Resources

  • Fall 2015 – First taught (13 students) – Chem 242

Class prep – Reading Worksheets – Klein text required

In class – Lecture and Think-Pair-Share cycle

Written homework assignments

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  • Fall 2016 (7 students), Fall 2017 (10 students) – minor adjustments

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  • Spring 2019 (14 students) – Overhaul – Video Lectures flipped

Reorganize – Karty text required

Class Quizzes – Individual + Group

Online Homework – Norton SmartWork

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  • Fall 2020 (12 students) – Fully Online – 342 “for Scientists and Professionals”

Online Individual Quiz before class meeting, Online Exams (please never again).

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  • Spring 2022 (13 students) – Return to In-Person – textbook downgraded to ‘recommended’

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  • ALOC 2022 !! :)

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  • Spring 2023 (8 students) – Online Homework – Open OChem OER

Just-in-Time prompt added

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  • Fall 2023 OChem 1 – McMurry OER textbook – Mastery Quizzes added

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Specific OERs for discussion

Open Educational Resources

  • OpenStax – McMurry’s Organic Chemistry textbook

– high quality, cohesive text – straightforward to implement

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  • OpenOChem – Carl Leblond – Indiana University of Pennsylvania

– Ehren Bucholtz – St Louis College of Pharmacy

– Jennifer Muzyka – Centre College (Danville, KY)

– functional and free system – implementation challenges

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How are course materials selected at your institution?

The Slido app must be installed on every computer you’re presenting from

Do not edit�How to change the design

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What textbook do you currently use?

The Slido app must be installed on every computer you’re presenting from

Do not edit�How to change the design

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How interested are you in using an OER textbook?

The Slido app must be installed on every computer you’re presenting from

Do not edit�How to change the design

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

McMurry OER textbook:

Open Educational Resources

  • 10th Edition released in Fall 2023 – OpenStax

- Dowloadable PDF (or Docx), Available print partner

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  • Tribute to son, Peter McMurry, who passed away from cystic fibrosis in December 2019. Encourages donations to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

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  • Dowloadable chapters, Student Solutions Manual, Instructor resources (PPT slides, test bank, etc.).

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Let’s discuss in Topic Teams…

Open Educational Resources

  • How do you currently use your textbook (and which one)?

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  • What barriers would you face in adopting an OER textbook (McMurry)?

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  • Does your institution promote / support the use of OERs? How?

15 minutes

Discuss with your group and update your Topic Google Slide

Team spokesperson: Most recently gone swimming

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1n4RoDZLfTm_AeUeRACweg4vOzaymnaLl/edit?slide=id.p1#slide=id.p1

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

OpenOChem (from 2012):

Open Educational Resources

Carl Leblond – Indiana University of Pennsylvania

- Chemistry Instructor / Programmer – Develop interactive online teaching tools (EasyOChem plugin for Moodle LMS)

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Jennifer Muzyka – Centre College (Danville, KY)

- Reactoin Zoo – interactive web-app with over 1200 reactions

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Ehren Bucholtz – St Louis College of Pharmacy

- Early EasyOChem user, facilitated change to broader LMS access

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

OpenOChem:

Open Educational Resources

– Interfaces with LMS (Learning Tools Interoperability - LTI)

– Free to use

– Variety of question types

– Implementation challenges

– LMS integration

– Variable question quality

– Limited accessibility tools

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Let’s discuss in Topic Teams…

Open Educational Resources

  • How do you use homework systems?

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  • OpenOChem interest (5 to 1 rating)

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  • If interested in OpenOChem, what questions or challenges would you like to discuss?

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  • What OERs have you tried (indicate if you recommend or don’t recommend it)?

Discuss with your group and update your Topic Google Slide

Team spokesperson: Least recently gone swimming

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1n4RoDZLfTm_AeUeRACweg4vOzaymnaLl/edit?slide=id.p1#slide=id.p1

15 minutes

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ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Wrap-up Questions and Discussion

Open Educational Resources

  • Questions

- (Reviewing Responses, Building Questions/Assignments)

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  • Challenges

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  • Other recommended OERs

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www.organicers.org

ALOC Online Workshop 2025

Exit Ticket

Open Educational Resources

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  • Answer on the form:

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    • What are some key advantages and disadvantages of using an OER?

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    • What is the largest barrier to implementing a (new) OER in your course?