Round One Illinois SCOERs Subgrant Awardees Abstracts

The “Illinois SCOERs: Support for the Creation of Open Educational Resources” Subgrants, funded by the Open Textbooks Pilot Grant received from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) and the U.S. Department of Education. Awardees will create open textbooks and ancillary materials in the focus area, “The Human Condition: Care, Development, and Lifespan.

Project Abstracts

The Psychology of Exceptional Children

Dr. Diana Zaleski from the University of Illinois Springfield, Dr. Zaleski’s proposal is for a project entitled The Psychology of Exceptional Children which will be an open educational resource (OER) textbook that will be used in undergraduate exceptional child courses. To date, there are no OER textbooks dealing with issues concerning the development, psychology, or education of children with exceptionalities. The term exceptional children refer to both disabilities and giftedness, as well as children who are at-risk for developmental delays. Ancillary materials will include reflection questions and application activities will be developed for each chapter along with a special assignment that engages students in the development of assistive devices and adaptive equipment for children with disabilities using 3D printers.

Advancing Open Educational ReSources and Visual Pedagogy for DIverRse StudEnts: ASPIRE

Dr. Karen Vuckovic from the University of Illinois Chicago submitted the proposal Advancing Open Educational ReSources and Visual Pedagogy for DIverRse StudEnts: ASPIRE. The ASPIRE project will create and adopt an original open access text on the foundational principles of pharmacology for diverse nursing students using an innovative visual approach. The text will focus on core fundamental knowledge of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Pharmacology, a difficult, yet essential subject, demands integrating biology, physiology, pathology, genetics and chemistry (STEM) knowledge. The novel and intentional aspect of this OER is the emphasis on visualization (animation, video, and figures) to illustrate STEM-related pharmacologic knowledge. The ASPIRE project supports a creative pedagogy model of OER, integrating multicultural 3D visual content into existing evidence-based core courses, and filling the gaps in diverse educational curricula to advance an innovative model of integrated multicultural programming.

Development and Implementation of Open-Access Problems and Activities for Health-Focused Chemistry Courses

Barbara Anderson from Roosevelt University will be awarded a subgrant for a collaborative project between Roosevelt University, De Paul University, and Harper College for a project on Development and Implementation of Open-Access Problems and Activities for Health-Focused Chemistry Courses. The OER materials will be used for chemistry classes that are taught for nursing students as well as other health science majors. Chemistry is taught in integrated General, Organic, & Biochemistry (GOB) one- or two-term courses in many health sciences programs, including nursing. In 2018 Harper College developed an OER for their Chemistry for Health Science course. The instructors found the book to be suitable but there were no ancillaries that promoted active learning in class, practice solving problems, and exam review. Several 3D printing assignments will be included in the ancillaries, like printing of molecular models, to allow for comparing and contrasting the chemical properties of materials used in the printing and related materials used in the medical field. The modular aspect of this project, along with the overlap with standard general, organic, and biochemistry courses, allow for a far-reaching impact for all institutions across Illinois and nationwide.

Diverse Approaches to Language Development

Juhelia Thompson from Morton College will be working on Diverse Approaches to Language Development for her Il SCOERs subgrant. The PSY 215 Life Span course educates students about the developmental stages of humans from a cognitive, physical, cultural, and biological perspective. The discussion topics are designed to address ways to improve the quality of life, preventative and proactive measures to care for humans during each stage of development, including but not limited to childhood, young adults, middle aged adults, and older adults. The theme of the grant directly relates to the student learning outcomes to master the concepts beneficial to the human services related fields and understand identity development and the impact of genetics and the environment on behaviors and thought processes. The ancillaries materials will include a 3D printing assignment as a pedagogical tool to provide students with the opportunity to use advanced technology since this is a requirement for many students entering the Healthcare field.

Institutional Strategies for Increasing Student Success: Equity and Open Educational Resources

Dr. Vance Gray will be awarded a subgrant for Institutional Strategies for Increasing Student Success: Equity and Open Educational Resources on behalf of Olive-Harvey College, a member of the City Colleges of Chicago. Olive-Harvey College proposes to develop an Open Educational Resource (OER) for General Psychology 201 (PSYCH 201) to support equity and access to course materials for its students on day one. This effort is critical to removing the barriers of costs to our student population and should result in increased student success and student connectedness through the incorporation of a high impact practice embedded in the course that features research and student exhibition of a cultural symbol printed in 3-d image. This student exhibition will be presented during Olive-Harvey College’s Ideas Conference each spring term. This OER development addresses the needs of students in an introductory course related to the human condition – psychology.

Cultural Humility in Public Administration

Dr. Jacqueline Samuel from National Louis University will be awarded a subgrant for her project Cultural Humility in Public Administration. This textbook supports introductory courses that address “The Human Condition: Care, Development, and Lifespan” through Public Health, Social Psychology, Community Psychology, and Social Work.  Each science looks at the individual, community, and society but it is applied differently.  Public Health is protective and injury preventing, Social Psychology looks at social influence and the interaction of behaviors, while Community Psychology looks at the relationships with context, and Social Work meets the needs. The ancillary materials will include a 3d printed assignment that explore culture in terms of place and space.

Nurse Assistant Training OER

Dr. Lonetta Oliver at Illinois Central College will be working on Nurse Assistant Training OER with her subgrant award. The subgrant theme is “The Human Condition: Care, Development, and Lifespan.” ICC’s project fits nicely within this theme in that OER developed for the Nurse Assistant Training course Health 112 (HLTH 112) will focus on nursing and elder care students. Developed OER will incorporate materials focused on filling gaps that current texts do not address, such as life and soft skills. Current OER in Nursing Assistant training is incomplete and does not meet the needs of underrepresented students who are facing barriers that inhibit successful completion of courses such as Health 112.  ICC plans to use the 3D printer and consumables provided through the CARLI Illinois SCOERS grant to create the 3D HLTH 112 assignment (the assignment will consist of a side-by-side comparison of a brain exhibiting signs of severe Alzheimer’s disease compared to an anatomically normal brain.

Anatomy and Physiology for Allied Health Professions

Amber Burtis from Southern Illinois University Carbondale will oversee the creation of Anatomy and Physiology for Allied Health Professions, with Professor Tim Davis. Anatomy and Physiology for Allied Health Professions will create an open textbook and ancillary materials for a one-semester Anatomy and Physiology non-lab-based course that is geared towards allied health majors and is also in the core curriculum at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. This project fits into the CARLI subgrant theme of “The Human Condition: Care, Development, and Lifespan” because it focuses on anatomy and physiology which is a foundational area in the study of human health and development. The course does not include a lab, so ancillary materials for this course will be a “lab” manual for 3D printing and Virtual Reality assignments and activities related to Anatomy and Physiology.

The Female Reproductive System and Women’s Health Through a Multidisciplinary Lens

The final project that will be funded, The Female Reproductive System and Women’s Health Through a Multidisciplinary Lens, is another collaboration project between Carle Illinois College of Medicine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Knox College proposed by Dr. Samar Hegazy and Judith Thorn. The resource will serve as a hub for learning about the conditions affecting the female reproductive system and women's health throughout the lifespan from different perspectives, including anatomy, physiology, pathology, gynecology, obstetrics, social determinants of health, preventive medicine, and medical humanities. Furthermore, the resource will provide an entire module about embryology and human development. This resource's structural outline should be considered a model to follow for learning and studying other organ systems and conditions, including aspects of care during all stages of life. The OER will contain different materials to suit variable learners’ preferences. These include text, diagrams (colored and grayscale), videos (with subtitles and description), 3D printed models for teaching and assignments, and interactive assessments. This OER would have versatile applications in several curricula. It can be adopted in medical colleges curricula (undergraduate and postgraduate residency training) and college-level STEM courses.