Affordable Learning Materials Champions

Karen Wadley has incorporated affordable learning materials in her Latin language and University Foundations courses since 2011, making use of low-cost, quality-content textbooks that can be used through multiple semesters and creating digital textbooks for advanced Latin translation courses. She has intentionally incorporated educational content on platforms such as TedTalk and Youtube, free online publications and Latin text databases, and Albertsons Library resources, in order to reduce cost for students and to make the course materials representative of voices marginalized in academia. She also actively engages students as content creators. Students in her Upper Division Latin classes transcribe and translate an authentic Latin language text as part of the Historia Scholastica Project, building a resource for students and researchers in disciplines beyond History and Classics to draw upon in interdisciplinary studies. Students in her Foundations of Ethics and Diversity: Writing Science Fiction courses create the majority of short fiction read and experienced in the class, with reflection and revision assignments directly drawing on these products.

De De Gardner is co-developing two Open Educational Resources (OER) with students. The first OER aims to create a practical educational resource for the Respiratory Therapy 204 Laboratory Course, focusing on airway clearance and lung expansion therapies (ACLE). This resource is designed to teach respiratory therapy students about these devices and therapies, which they will then use to assist individuals living with acute and chronic lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, which leads to retained lung secretions. Such mucus retention can worsen lung conditions, potentially resulting in respiratory failure and the need for mechanical ventilation. The therapeutic devices featured in the OER can treat or prevent these secondary conditions. Students have been divided into five groups, each assigned to a different therapeutic device. After completing a literature review, they will spend the next five weeks developing chapters for the OER, integrating H5P tools, videos, and other resources. This initiative will result in the creation of the first and only interactive OER for respiratory therapy, specifically tailored for respiratory therapy students. The second OER focuses on early mobility for mechanically ventilated patients and is being developed in collaboration with a graduate student.

Baker Lawley began his journey with OER in the summer of 2020 when, after realizing there was not a viable textbook for his Credit for Prior Learning seminar, he decided the best solution was just to write one. With the support of the OER Open Book Summer Grant from eCampus, Lawley remixed and wrote a textbook for his IPS 301: Prior Learning Portfolio Development course that is still in active use. 

The successful implementation of this textbook, along with students expressing appreciation for a free resource, inspired Lawley to continue developing OER. His next compilation combined original writing and remixed OER material in a textbook for a core course in his program, IPS/BAS. This textbook for IPS 385: Asking Questions, Framing Problems focuses on the creative process and updates dated, difficult readings for a modern adult-learner audience. He is also developing a new course, Work-Integrated Learning, and will use OER and other free resources in this course as well.

Lawley believes in expanding access to higher education, and feels that adopting or creating free source materials is a powerful way to lessen the financial burden of higher education and  increase student retention. 

Dr. Logan Steele developed a new People Analytics course for the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University. As this field – which applies data analytics to human resource decisions – is relatively new, traditional textbooks are scarce and quickly become outdated. Instead of requiring expensive textbooks, Dr. Steele curated affordable materials from business books, industry blogs, and business press articles. He partnered with Associate Professor and Librarian Heather Grevatt and Instructional Design Consultant Nicole Holten Baird to secure institutional licenses for key business texts through the library, making them freely accessible to students. This approach not only reduces costs but ensures students learn from current, practical resources. The combination of freely available business content and library-licensed materials creates an affordable, up-to-date learning experience that serves as a model for teaching emerging business topics.

Jennifer is an advocate for faculty utilizing Affordable Learning Materials (ALM) in their courses. She exhibits this by utilizing an Open Educational Resources (OER) textbook in the Evidence Based Practice Course for the RNBS Online Completion Track, and she is currently working with a Research and Innovation Consultant through the eCampus Center to research and/or develop other Affordable Learning Materials.  She is currently working on utilizing or constructing an OER book for the Population Health and the Population Health Experiential Learning Project course in the RNBS Online Completion Track.  Her work in researching Affordable Learning Materials for her courses allows her to be in a position to share Open Education Resource(s) with colleague(s).  Her desire to learn more about Affordable Learning Materials led her to enroll in the Affordable Learning Materials Certificate through the Center of Teaching and Learning with a completion date of Spring 2025. Jennifer will also serve as a faculty representative on the Affordable Learning Materials Steering Committee starting in October of 2024.