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Hello.

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My name is Sarah Reed.

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I am the Director of

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professional and
technical writing at

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Portland State
University and also

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an Associate Professor

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in the English Department.

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I'm here today to

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talk a little bit about

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the work we've been doing,

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a PSU and also

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a bit of a broader
perspective on the

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present and the future of

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OERs and technical and
professional writing.

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Going to start by talking

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a little bit about
the presence.

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At the present includes

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both what we're
doing here at

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PSU and also a review

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of literature,

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the OER literature, more

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broadly speaking, in
higher education.

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And the challenges and

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barriers for students and

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faculty that have been

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documented in
that literature.

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My colleague henry cubby,

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his presentation
is very thoroughly

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introduces the
guide that we

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have authored at Portland
State University.

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The OER guide for WR
227 instructor sets,

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introductory technical
writing that we

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authored and 2019 and 2020.

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The purpose of
that guide was

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to help instructors adapt

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existing courses to be

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less reliant on
purchase texts,

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or to provide a
framework for

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developing a holy
OER base course.

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And the primary audience

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for that guide which has

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been published or
PDX scholar on

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our library web
page and linked.

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The top of the slide

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are 227 instructors at PSU.

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Over again, also
particularly

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at Portland
Community College,

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PCC, where many of

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our instructors
teach as well.

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However, this guy also

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has relevance

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for international
audience and is

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getting attention

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from the major
professional organizations

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in technical writing that

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have a more national reach.

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So let's talk a
little bit about

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the challenges
and barriers to

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open NCL resources for
students and faculty.

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And this portion of

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the presentation is
based on extensive,

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an extensive search of

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the broad research
literature

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on OER adoption in
higher education.

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It's actually both a

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national and an
international movement.

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Along with my
colleague henry KV.

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We have spent the
last year or so

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doing this research and

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writing it up
into what will

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ultimately be

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published in a
research article,

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we identified five
areas of challenge,

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awareness, choice,

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quality, efficacy, and use.

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And I'm going to spend

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just a little
brief amount of

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time talking about
each one of these.

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To set some broad
ideas in motion,

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we'll start with awareness.

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Do faculty and
students know how to

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find OERs for

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technical and
professional writing

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or communication.

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And some just very high
level findings here.

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Students we have discovered

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generally are
not aware that

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our course may be using

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OER text rather than

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a traditional
commercial text.

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However, they are generally

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police and not have
to buy a text.

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Low cost or no cost text.

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Textbook resources
for students are

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generally very
favorably received.

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There are efforts
in Oregon and

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also nationally to build

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university course
scheduling

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systems that can tag

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courses as having
low cost or

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no cost text
associated with them.

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So far I think
the application

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of this is inconsistent.

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And students, either it,

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it is not yet integrated

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technologically
or students do

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not find it a meaningful

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system in their search.

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I know that a key
issue in particular,

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there are technological
challenges that

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make embedding this kind of

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information in
our registration

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system difficult.

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So students still generally

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have a low level
of awareness of

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courses that have adopted

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OER texts app or own state.

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In general, OER awareness

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among faculty
is on the rise.

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In part due to efforts
like open over again

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and in this symposium
nationally.

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More broadly, a study

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has shown that awareness
among faculty.

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Is it about one
in five faculty

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are aware of OERs.

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However, adoption is
more like one in ten.

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And I don't really
have any basis

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for knowing if that
is a lot or a little.

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Most of the
literature, however,

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it's pretty clear that

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awareness is increasing.

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Monks for students
and faculty.

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Working a choice choice
is actually the issue

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that initially drove us
to create the guide.

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This is a screenshot

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showing the results of

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a search for Technical
Communication.

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Titles on the moral
law.org site,

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which is one of the
repositories for OERs.

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You can see that this
screenshot shows only

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22 of 294 possible titles.

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Searching for technical
writing brings up

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an additional 221 titles.

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So it's very easy to
see how for faculty who

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may want to make the move

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into using OERs
in our classroom.

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Having to navigate
the world of 0,

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we are just in
technical writing alone

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is an overwhelming and
labor intensive task.

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So our initial impulse

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behind the guide was
to create a guide

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that streamline

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that process for
instructors by

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helping them to decide only

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what they wanted and

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needed for their courses.

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But to make pretty
concrete recommendations

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about OER resources
that we felt

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would be the
best choices for

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the writing 227 course at

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PSU and across Oregon.

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More generally.

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Quality isn't
very interesting.

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Area of concern in

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terms of being a
challenge and a barrier.

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11 way to think about

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quality is how to OERs for,

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for technical and
professional communication

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compared to
commercial textbooks.

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And what we found from

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our research in both
talking to students

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and faculty and also by

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reviewing the
literature is that

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this is a different issue

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for students and
instructors.

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For students. The issue is

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one of usability,
understood.

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I think most simply
as ease of use.

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Do they find though
we are busy,

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interesting and engaging in

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their navigation of it?

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For faculty, the issue

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is generally expressed more

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as one of an issue
in depth and

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coverage of content related

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to their course curriculum.

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Rather than thinking about

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how that experience of
that texts for student

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might compare to

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a highly produced
commercial textbook that's

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highly visual for color

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with a lot of
additional sidebar,

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an example
resources embedded

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right into the text.

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In comparison with
many OER texts

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that are generally
very text-heavy,

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possibly with links that

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lead to external resources.

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And the occasional image.

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Which of course, quickly
can go out of date.

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Efficacy.

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There's been a lot of

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research nationally
and internationally

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on whether or not
learning outcomes are

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maintained in courses that

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adopt OERs versus
courses that don't.

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In general, the
findings are mixed.

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However, they
definitely lean

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towards results that

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indicate that we are do

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not lead to lower student
learning outcomes.

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And this is good news.

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In general for
OERs. I think.

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However, what that
research does

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not take into account
is that in general,

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courses are black boxes

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and with a lot of
factors at play that

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affect student
learning outcomes,

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including the instructor,

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the instructor's
experience and training,

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their pedagogy,

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curriculum, student
characteristics and

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contexts, their access to.

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Technology and et cetera.

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So the question that this

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raises is kind of
a bottom line that

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the textbook may
not actually

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affect student learning
outcomes much at all.

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And this is also
related to US,

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which we'll look at
in just a moment.

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Another interesting
outcome in

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this body of research

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is what is called the
access hypothesis,

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which is something we

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also want to keep in mind.

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The axis hypothesis
is OER benefits

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learning by
providing access

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to critical
course materials.

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And therefore predicts that

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we should only benefit

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students who would
not otherwise have

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access to the materials.

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So it's important to
keep in mind the,

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when looking at this
efficacy studies.

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And important to
remember that

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they're not measuring
the quality

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of the text as much as

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they're measuring
improvement and

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learning outcomes
for students who may

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already have low outcomes.

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Use.

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How do students really use

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engage with an experience?

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Oers in technical
communication,

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technical writing courses.

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So there's a lot
only limited data

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on how much students
actually use textbooks.

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And in particular
OER resources.

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We off, it's not
uncommon to hear

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from faculty sincere doubt

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about how much students do

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engage with

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classroom resources
like textbooks.

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We heard a faculty say,

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I really struggle
with whether or not

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to assign readings
to my students.

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Many of them don't
learn best by

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reading or just
don't do it.

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So it feels like
I end up doing

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twice the work to
catch them up.

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I usually assigned reading

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as a supplementary
activity,

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which is part of
why I don't require

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a textbook that
costs them a time.

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This issue of
course is not.

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You need to 0 the art,

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but it is a little

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bit humbling in
the sense of wow.

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Concerns around OERs and

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quality and development
are important.

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They may not be the most

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important aspect of what

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creates a quality
learning experience

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for a particular student.

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Finally, just on US,

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there is a study of one of

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the most commonly used.

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Well, we are spent in
technical writing.

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Kennesaw states open TC.

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And they took a look at the

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Google Analytics data to

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see what they could

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discern in terms of how

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much students use
the resource.

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And they concluded that

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many students did
not use the OER.

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And of those who did

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only a few access
that regularly.

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And all of the students who

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did axis it regularly or

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occasionally did not
spend very much time

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on the contents. Right.

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Let's just I'd like
to just finish up

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by looking to the future.

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I'd like to propose
a direction of

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research for OERs in

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technical and
professional writing and

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also continue to talk about

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the dream of centralizing

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review in the repository of

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OERs for technical and
professional writing.

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Since or our work so far

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has established that for

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students qualities
linked to usability or

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easy ease of use of
an OER resource.

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And of course, usability,

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ease of use is linked
to use switches.

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Ultimately linked
to how much

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the textbook
contributes to course,

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the students
learning outcomes.

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It's worthwhile to invest

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our time in more research

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on the usability of OER.

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Texts for students.

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In commercial publishing.

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A lot of time, expertise,

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energy, money resources are

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put into page design.

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And making sure that

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that design supports
learning is engaging,

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is interesting,
is up to date.

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And we can't assume that

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OER materials can
be held to lower

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standards and still
engage students

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in at the same level

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as their commercial
counterparts.

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And lastly, when we
talk to students,

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they tend to think
of OERs primarily in

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terms of their low

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cost being their
main advantage.

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Yet, when it comes
to their actions,

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It's the usability that
matters much more.

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A text that is not,

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does not have a good user

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experience for students,

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simply will be used

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only minimally
or not at all.

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So finally, I like to
talk about a dream of

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a standing
professional body and

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technical professional
communication that

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reviews OER for the field

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based on these
five categories,

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awareness, choice,
quality, efficacy,

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and use, possibly
others as well.

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There are other
other aspects of

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OERs that can also be
taken into account.

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And that this body
would publish

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recommendations
to the fields and

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also maintain a repository

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of materials in order to

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streamline for
instructors and

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other stakeholders
finding those

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and adopting
those materials.

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In addition, over time,

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the dream is up

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this standing
professional body

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would not only recommend

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OERs and maintain
our repository,

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but that the recommendation
of an OER text by

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this body would amount
to the same level of

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professional credential
as the publication

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of a textbook by major
textbook publisher.

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And this is for
the purpose, for,

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for the offer
for tenure and

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promotion and for
other merit pay,

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other types of
professional compensation.

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The good news is that

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the council programs and

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technical and scientific
communication,

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00:16:36,230 --> 00:16:39,365
CPT as C, has

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administrators
committee has taken

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00:16:41,555 --> 00:16:43,385
taken up this idea.

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I was invited last week to

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00:16:46,715 --> 00:16:48,740
visit their
meeting and give

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00:16:48,740 --> 00:16:51,035
some feedback on
their efforts so far,

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which includes working
on a set of principles

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for against which we

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00:16:57,260 --> 00:16:58,760
are might be measured

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and therefore recommended.

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And also beginning
to look forward to

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a permanent committee
structure to create

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a standing
professional body that

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would both create that

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00:17:14,090 --> 00:17:15,800
we'll review OER texts,

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create recommendations,

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and manager repository.

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And as I said,

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ultimately hopefully
build the credibility

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00:17:24,485 --> 00:17:27,140
to create

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00:17:27,140 --> 00:17:32,330
professional credentials
for authors.

401
00:17:32,330 --> 00:17:34,355
Thank you so much.

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00:17:34,355 --> 00:17:35,870
I hope my comments today

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00:17:35,870 --> 00:17:39,710
have launched some
thoughts and questions

404
00:17:39,710 --> 00:17:43,040
for you about OERs and

405
00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:46,340
teaching technical
professional writing in,

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00:17:46,340 --> 00:17:48,304
across a variety
of contexts.

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00:17:48,304 --> 00:17:49,790
And I look forward to

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00:17:49,790 --> 00:17:53,150
your comments and
questions. Hi there.

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00:17:53,150 --> 00:17:55,070
In this Birds of a
Feather session,

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00:17:55,070 --> 00:17:58,685
or please reach out to
me by email as well.

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00:17:58,685 --> 00:18:00,420
Thank you.