Affordable Course Content Awards

Project: Create an open lab manual

Class: Microbiology Lab (BIOZ303) and Medical Microbiology Lab (BIOZ209)

Project Team: Joseph Battistelli

Key Features

• Remixing existing open microbiology lab manuals
• Photographing procedures and outcomes to assist students in preparing and conducting
• Providing detailed metadata for photos, will also be shared independently from the final resource
• Developing a question bank for pre-lab preparation

Project Updates

• Draft form used since Fall 2020
• Images collected
• Finalizing content and formatting
• Considering dissemination format and platform
• Published an article describing some of the pedagogical underpinnings of the lab manual: 

View the OER: Check back soon!

Current VCU Impact Level: 1,000 Students (reached Fall 2022) and $75,000 in student savings (reached Spring 2024). In use 10+ semesters.

Project: Author an Open Textbook

Class: All research methods focused sociology classes, including Research Methods in the Social Sciences (SOCY320), Sociology Senior Seminar (SOCY406), and Sociological Research Methods (SOCY602) 

Project Team: Victor Chen, Gabriela León-Pérez​, Julie Honnold, Volkan Aytar

Key Features

• OER that aims to integrate elements of a traditional textbook, material from blogs, and multimedia (e.g YouTube videos and podcasts)
• Adapting existing materials, while providing context to create a coherent resource
• Potential to be used in all research methods classes in the sociology department
• Includes examples from local Virginia scientists to provide local context for content

Project Updates

• Awarded a VIVA Course Redesign Grant in Fall 2019
• Will publish on Pressbooks (hosted via Rampages)
• Currently finalizing content and sending it out for peer review
• Conducting Q&A with Virginia researchers and developing sidebars
• Assessing student outcomes and textbook perception using the existing, commercial textbooks

Project: Author an Open Textbook

Class: Children's Literature I (TEDU386)

Project Team: Lisa Cipolletti, Valerie Robnolt, and Elizabeth Morris, Children’s Librarian, Richmond Public Library (Main Branch)

Key Features

• Provide an overview of children's literature (e.g. history) as well as detailed explorations of literary genres 
• Will include suggested booklists for each genre
• Plans to eventually include student contributions, such as book reviews and digital book trailers

Project Updates

• Began beta-testing written content in Summer 2020.
• Gathered feedback from students in Summer and Fall 2020 to help ensure the maximum impact of the resource
• Identified an existing OER which can be reused in part to eliminate duplication of efforts in creating content
• Currently finishing authoring the text and working on importing into the website which will deliver content
• Awarded a 2021 Affordable Course Content Awards sustain grant to assist in finalizing importing and formatting content in their online platform.

View the OER: 

Current VCU Impact Level: 100 Students (reached Spring 2023) and $10,000 in student savings (reached Fall 2022). In use for 5+ semesters.

Project: Adopt open and free materials and adjust software use

Class: Research Methods in Sport (SPTL 603)

Project Team: Greg Greenhalgh

Key Features

• Replace the previous textbook with open alternative (OpenStax's Introduction to Business Statistics)
• Use podcasts to provide insight into the ways research and analysis are used in the sports industry
• Convert statistical analysis from SPSS to Microsoft Excel, which will be more applicable in graduate’s real-world organizations. Use LinkedIn Learning Course freely available through VCU to teach statistics in Excel

Project Updates

• Implemented in Fall 2019
• Faculty left VCU but materials still in use

View the OER: (for adopt projects, this is the syllabus developed using the open materials)

License: Research Methods in Sport Syllabus (Fall 2019) by Gregory Greenhalgh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Current VCU Impact Level: 100 Students (reached Spring 2023) and $5,000 in student savings (reached Spring 2024) In use for 5+ semesters.

Project: Author Open Learning Modules

Class: SPAN202

Project Team: Laura Middlebrooks

Key Features

• Continuation of the previously awarded Foreign Language project, focused on the completion of open textbook for Spanish 202
• Providing the scaffolding for open pedagogy in the form of student-curated Spanish language material
• Students heavily involved in the creation of the resource
• Focus on diversity and inclusion within the text

Project Updates

• Publishing on Pressbooks (hosted via Rampages)
• Began beta-testing in Fall 2020
• Working on finalizing content and formatting
• Student workers creating interactive content to enhance the online text 

Read more about Prof. Middlebrroks' experiences creating OER as a part of our Why We Choose Open: OER Stories blog series:

View the OER:

License: Taller REAL (Recursos Educativos Abiertos y Libres) by Laura Middlebrooks is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Current VCU Impact Level: 100 Students (reached Fall 2021) and $25,000 in student savings (reached Spring 2022). In use for 5+ semesters.

Project: Adopt open and library-licensed materials and create ancillaries

Class: Year one of the RN to BSN program (NURS301, 307, 308, 309)

Project Team: Tammy Williams, Suzanne McGinnis, and Elizabeth Miles

Key Features

• Eliminating most, if not all, textbook costs for the first year of the RN to BSN program
• Creating ancillaries to replace those lost when no longer using publisher resources

Project Updates

• Reduced textbook costs implemented beginning in Fall 2020

Current VCU Impact Level: 100 Students (reached Spring 2024) and $50,000 in student savings (reached Spring 2024). In use for 5+ semesters.