8 | One of the initial, primary reasons for exploring OER in the university classroom was cost and students having the materials they needed upon entering the classroom. In my experience, I saw that sometimes over half a class would not have textbooks or workbooks even extending into the middle of the semester. Not having the resources needed to study coupled with a monolingual population who would also not be able to create a Frankenstein of study materials and methods to acquiring the language, I saw OER as a solution to this student need. It ended up being much more. I have taught at a couple of different universities and the situation was the same: first weeks of class, students still did not have a textbook. As well, the big publishers that offered traditional packages that include online resources and workbooks cost hundreds of dollars. Beyond instructor complaints of what students choose to spend money on instead of books (which is a different question), I felt that all faculty needed to consider different options that would ensure a good start for students. Not having a book or workbook for a week of class could possibly be made up. Not having a book for half the semester or more usually created a situation for a student that was impossible to recover from. Workbooks as well were problematic. Some faculties I had worked with in the past had foregone completely workbooks for students to try to cut the cost and make the text requirements more affordable for students. Of course, this was a great disadvantage to students since they would now have no reliable source of practice and would need to devise practice strategies on their own to acquire the target language. This is completely untenable. Students who were unable (or rarely unwilling) to buy the required texts or purchased them too late often ended up failing or earning very low grades. They were never able to catch up. Success was being tied to economics at base-- and sometimes class. Teaching populations with many students who would be the first to graduate college in their families or who were in need of financial aid, this cost dynamic was placing a heavy burden on their shoulders. I decided to find and implement OER in classes to alleviate this and allow all students to have the same opportunity to learn the target language from day 1. In my previous position (and my first foray into the OER world), I did a couple of things. First, I searched for free practice apps like Duolingo and Mondly (now currently not totally free). These are not OER but are free resources that can be implemented. I became a lifelong fan of the laits.utexas.edu/spe page. In that program, I integrated the videos as foundational piece of the curriculum to build listening comprehension skills. they also worked very well to combat stereotypes of the Spanish-speaking world. Many students were surprised to hear about the speakers' families being so familiar to their own families. I then decided to expand my use of tools to create a more comprehensive and free tool for students. Using WIX, I created an entire Spanish Program website for a small, private college. I integrated the laits website for reviews but in addition created about 30 grammar teaching videos that students were able to access to study. The cultural links, grammar videos and listening components greatly increased student retention and exceeding target goals. Previously at that university, students were repeating once or twice the FL class in order to pass it. They did not have any study tools nor workbooks. Through OER, I was able to change the culture surrounding FL study. Many remarked at how students were now seen on campus for the first time no only actively studying Spanish but also using it on campus freely. They reported how they felt confident speaking in their communities and jobs as well as sharing materials with familiy (thus building language learning in their communities). In my current position as a Program Coordinator, I have expanded my use of OER to encompass the entire curriculum by implementing a switch to only OER in the entire program. I trained out instructors on OER, exposed them to databases and created a committee for the creation and adoption of OER in all FL classes. In addition to the US databases, we also looked specifically at OER repositories of other countries (REA in Spanish) and found and adopted texts. We currently use a variety of OER across three languages. In classes I either use Videoele or Carnegie Mellon's OLI Spanish course as well as the laits website. In the classroom, all students have access to materials from the first day. There has been a marked increase in student achievement and in those choosing to minor and/or learn other foreign languages because of the quality OER as well as the ability to tailor the resources for the program and for the particular instructor needs. Videolele allowed me to not only use an OER text but ensure that student would have a free work book as well. I continue to use laits in classes no matter the OER resource. Students are the center of what I do and students have been very excited! They appreciate that they no longer have that economic barrier to the materials they need to succeed. We no longer have any student who worries that they may not be able to catch up. We have students who are surprising themselves at what they are able to do in the TL and applying it outside the class-- engaging in lifelong learning-- because of the application of OER in the FL class. |
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