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Calculus is about the very large, the very small, and how things change—the surprise is that something seemingly so abstract ends up explaining the real world.

This course is a first and friendly introduction to calculus, suitable for someone who has never seen the subject before, or for someone who has seen some calculus but wants to review the concepts and practice applying those concepts to solve problems. One learns calculus by doing calculus, and so this course is based around doing practice problems.

A two-day introduction to modern evidence-based teaching practices, built and maintained by the Carpentry community.

This document might be a solid example of how carefully and collaboratively open resources may be curated by teams of educators.

I left the content in as the main example here, because the form itself is very simple. I have found that district leaders are sometimes interested early on in what it "looks like" to have teachers exert this level of agency over the resources they are curating in such an initiative. I think this can also be valuable for teachers new to the work. Knowing that their professional voice could be leveraged in such a way to create custom materials can be empowering.

Specifically, this tool used as a live form between a team of teachers co-editing a text-based resource on CK-12's platform for "flexbook" creation/curation. The work of alignment to standards and local curriculum was done in a collaborative face to face setting, and then the more fine-grained edits for specific content alignment, factual correctness, and vocabulary synchronicity were done asynchronously through forms such as this one.

Finally, it is important to note that a district curriculum and instruction expert in this area was also involved in vetting some of the edits you see suggested here.

This resource introduces teachers to some elements of using authentic materials in and ESL context with examples of modifying, contextualizing, and supporting comprehension of challenging vocubulary.

A Developmental Systems Guide for Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health Practitioners provides clinicians with actionable evidence-based practices for the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of child and adolescent mental and behavioral health. This approach combines developmental psychology and ecological systems in recognition of the fact that children’s developmental challenges, tasks, and capacities intersect with the risks and protective factors of their environment. Chapters feature detailed case studies and conclude with conversations with clinicians in which they share targeted recommendations for patient evaluation, treatment approaches, and family engagement and support.

This online, shared Diigo group is an example of one strategy for collaboratively archiving, aggregating, aligning and curating open and free resources. This group was actively used from 2014-2017 to supplement another team project to curate custom CK-12 Flexbooks for all Middle School Science modules. Items were archived and shared here to be vetted for inclusion by other faculty as well as district level Science Coordinators.Some of the advantages to using Diigo in this way are as follows:

Diigo allows an extension to be easily placed directly into the Chrome or Safari browser, thereby making it handy at the very point of discovery of the resource. There is no need to copy a URL and then go elsewhere to open another tool or service for entry. In working with faculty on such projects, we have found that limiting the number of steps between discovery of a resource and its ultimate inclusion in student-facing products is valuable.
This approach also allows a very transparent running archive for the entire team, allowing your content experts to do their thing in an effective manner.
Some of the details that make this effective are the ability to comment on submitted resources, thus generating a running conversation, direct editing of submissions for accuracy and alignment, etc.
We also utilized the ability to employ a common group dictionary of tags. This is important so that tags are useful and not splintered into many such as: “7thGrade,” “7th Grade,” “Seventh Grade,” and so on.
Annotation and markup is also available right at the point of discovery, and this markup also shows clearly in the running archive of the shared group.
The service is free to use, and even the group function is free as long as the group is public-facing. In the spirit of #GoOpen, this more than fits.
All of the work can also be exported for long-term archiving if this is a need.

One key thing to note, is that we actually used state standards as tags as well. At the time, this led to the potential for a very laser-focused conversation regarding whether or not resources truly facilitated work directly on the standard, or just “in the area of the standard,” which can be a concern at times. However, these were not NGSS standards at the time, and I want that to be clear. These are all solid resources for the application, but the alignment would certainly shift when cross-walking to NGSS.
(two sample screenshots below)

https://goopen.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screenshot-2019-04-10-11.15.51.pn

https://goopen.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Screenshot-2019-04-10-11.17.23-1024x725.png

This is an inquiry-based activity in which students will need to work together as a class to solve the following problem: they must construct a "boat" entirely out of modeling clay that is capable of supporting 150 grams of cargo without sinking.

This is a textbook for library science students and librarians on electronic resource management. It includes four main chapters that cover the electronic resource librarianship, technologies and standards, e-resource stewardship, and patrons. The book was written and is used by the author and is updated annually when the course is taught.

This is an interactive writing activity that allows students to familiarize themselves with character traits and thematic elements in literature, while giving them an opportunity to explore their skills in creative writing.

Environmental Science is a free and open textbook that enables students to develop a nuanced understanding of today’s most pressing environmental issues. This text helps students grasp the scientific foundation of environmental topics so they can better understand the world around them and their impact upon it. This text draws largely from open sources, in addition to new content from the editor.

Introduction to Geology students are asked to write a two page (5-6 paragraph) editorial that addresses what geology is and why it is important to society. To gather the information for their editorial, students have to interview at least five individuals (two of whom have to be professionals or faculty members), and consult the mission statements and goals of professional geology organizations (i.e. AAPG, AGU, GSA, SEPM, etc.) Students then synthesize their research and construct a well-written editorial with appropriate citations that will either explain, persuade, criticize, or praise. In completing the assignment, students not only better understand why it is good to study geology, but also have an appreciation for the scope and content of an Intro to Geology course.
Teaching Tips
Adaptations that allow this activity to be successful in an online
environment
I have not used this activity in an online environment, although students in my face-to-face class submit their assignment online through learning management software (i.e. BlackBoard, Desire2Learn, etc.).

Elements of this activity that are most effective
This is effective because it requires that students become active in the learning process, and although the writing is minimal, they have to really pay attention to their wording, point of view, and purpose. Moreover, when students interview professionals, other faculty, their parents, or friends, they are often engaged in interesting conversations that provide important insights. I have found that this helps motivate students and excites them about the content of the course.

Recommendations for other faculty adapting this activity to their
own course:
I recommend that other faculty use the content of the editorials periodically by referring back to student responses throughout the duration of their courses. It helps draw students back into the course, and helps connect them to why they are studying geology in the first place. In years when written work are less than satisfactory, I often require students to swap editorials and provide peer critiques. This usually helps students who struggle with their writing.

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ELA, History, and Math unit that links food production, eating choices, and health.

This activity requires students to explore a range of datasets that help substantiate Plate Tectonic Theory. Students investigate plate tectonic environments (convergent, divergent, transform boundaries), topography/bathymetry of continents and ocean basins, the distribution and pattern of earthquakes, the distribution of volcanoes, as well as ages of the sea-floor, and more.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

EyeRounds.org is a department supported site that provides training to residents, medical students and other ophthalmologists across the world. A very important recent addition are the EyeRounds Anki flash cards.

EyeRounds Anki is a free educational resource created by Iowa ophthalmology residents for all ophthalmology residents. It utilizes “Anki,” a popular flashcard program with a spaced-repetition algorithm that works to decrease study time and increase retention. Residents are busy and usually only have small pockets of free time to study. EyeRounds Anki works to maximize the study benefit received by focusing on high-yield material that broadly covers relevant ophthalmology material. EyeRounds Anki also emphasizes clinically important topics to help residents excel with patients. The EyeRounds Anki flash cards are integrated into the vast additional resources of EyeRounds to allow users to link to further detail on a topic.

The motto of EyeRounds Anki is “80% of the material in 20% of the time.”

This course focuses on helping students learn common medical prefixes, suffixes, root words, combining forms, terms, and abbreviations used in a variety of healthcare settings.

This webpage includes H5P activities aimed to help students practice:
- hearing the correct pronunciation of medical terms - Dialog Cards
- speaking medical terms with instant feedback about correct vs. incorrect pronunciation - Speak the Words

All activities are meant to supplement the textbook Medical Terminology for Healthcare Professions (Nelson, A., & Greene, K., 2021), a fabulous open education resource (OER) which already contains many useful interactive activities.

Syllabus with listening links for Introduction to Jazz History course that uses a library ebook as primary textbook: Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford, 2011). Covers the 90-year history of jazz, a truly American art form. Examines and analyzes eras, styles, and significant artists.

Upon successful completion students should be able to:

Understand that the study of jazz involves an analysis of what motivates humans to create and how their creations reflect their values and world views
Experience jazz music “dynamically,” that is, to appreciate simultaneously the uniqueness of a work, its origins and precedent, its potential as an inspiration and influence on later music and its relationship to a particular cultural moment
Critically examine the impact of jazz on social interaction so as to encourage sensitivity and empathy toward people with different values or beliefs.

Designed for an introductory course, this textbook takes a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of LGBTQ+ issues that helps students grasp core concepts through a variety of different perspectives.

Introduction to LGBTQ+ Studies offers accessible, academically sound information on a wide range of topics, including history, culture, and Queer Theory; an exploration of LGBTQ+ relationships, families, parenting, health, and education; and how to conduct research on LGBTQ+ topics. The book explores LGBTQ+ issues from the ancient world to contemporary global perspectives.

Employing an intersectional analysis, the textbook highlights how sexuality and gender are simultaneously experienced and constructed through other structures of inequality and privilege, such as race and class. The text supports multiple learning styles by integrating visual elements, multimedia resources, discussion and project prompts, and resources for further research throughout the textbook.