Author: Emily Barber

Where were you on September 11, 2001? Chances are very good that you have vivid memories of that day especially if you were in the United States. Why? Because we tend to remember emotional events. Although our memories of that day may not be completely accurate, it is unlikely that we will ever ‘forget’ where we were when we learned of the attacks because memory and emotion are inextricably linked.    

Many people think of teaching and learning as intellectual endeavors that engage the head more than the heart. However, in her book Emotions, Learning and the Brain, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, an affective neuroscientist and former teacher, argues that we only think deeply about things we care about and that it is impossible for students to think deeply about a topic unless they are emotionally engaged. Immordino-Yang relates the link between emotion, memory and learning to the fact that the brain mechanisms that regulate emotion evolved to aid survival. “Emotions such as anger, fear, happiness, and sadness are cognitive and physiological processes that involve both the body and the mind.”

She tells the story of a college-aged participant in a study who watches a video about a mother in China who finds a coin on the ground and uses it to buy warm cakes for her son who had been all day at school with nothing to eat. Although the son was very hungry, he offers his mother the last cake, which she in turn declines by lying that she had eaten already. The student is clearly moved by the story and describes the visceral reaction that he had as “a balloon or something just under my sternum”. As he reflects on it, he relates it to his own parents and the sacrifices that they made for him and how he does not thank them enough. (Note to self, find this video and show it to my kids.)

Immordino-Yang points out that the student only made the connection between the story and his own life because he was given adequate time to reflect. She believes that allowing time for constructive internal reflection is key to helping students make connections between material they learn in class and their own lives. This reflection time allows them to engage in cognitive perspective taking, i.e. seeing something from another’s point of view. It is also during reflective moments that students develop social awareness and the capacity for moral reasoning. One of the most common ways to build reflection into a class is through reflective writing activities such as logs and journals either in-class or out-of-class.  

Let’s Exchange EDvice!

Given that learning is an emotional and social experience, how do you help students emotionally engage with material that you teach? 

Steven J. Bell, Associate University Librarian, Temple University

Despite a growing conversation in higher education about open educational resources (OER), the fact remains that many faculty know little about OER or encounter various barriers keeping them from integrating these learning materials into their courses. We know this thanks to a recently published survey, Opening the Textbook: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2015-2016, from the Babson Survey Research Group. According to the report’s introduction:

Survey results, using responses of over 3,000 U.S. faculty, show that OER is not a driving force in the selection of [learning] materials – with the most significant barrier being the effort required to find and evaluate such materials. Use of open resources is low overall, but somewhat higher for large enrollment introductory-level courses.

Higher education media reporting on this study focused on two findings:

·       faculty remain largely unaware of OER

·       cost is a primary factor for faculty in choosing learning materials.

Only 25% of faculty indicated awareness of OER, still a slight increase from 2014-2015. One way to increase faculty awareness of OER is to…well…write an EDvice Exchange post to discuss what OER are, promote the value of OER as affordable learning material and address concerns faculty share about OER.

What Makes it OER?
What exactly makes an educational resource open? It takes more than being freely available on the Internet. To qualify as OER learning material should pass the Five R’s Test. That is, can you determine if the content can be:

Retained – you have the right to retain the content by virtue of downloading, storing and managing it;
Reused – you have freedom to use the content as you wish for reuse on the web, a course site, etc.;
Revised – you can adapt, adjust or otherwise modify the content;
Remixed – you can merge the content with other material to create something new;
Redistributed – you can share copies of the original or revised/remixed content with others.

“Openness” happens when faculty create and share learning content they develop for their students, be it a quiz, a video tutorial, course notes, slides or even entire monographs. How can educators be intentional in giving their materials OER status? One way is to contribute the resource to a repository of open and sharable learning resources, such as MERLOT. Alternately, assign a Creative Commons License to the content. This signals the material is available for any of the Five R’s without needing the author’s explicit permission. It looks like this:

The symbols indicate this content requires anyone using it to provide attribution (BY), refrain from using it for any commercial application (NC) and must share it freely with others (SA). The Creative Commons website has a license generator that simplifies the process of assigning a license to content.
  
Why Do So Few Faculty Use OER?
The Babson Survey asked faculty to indicate important factors in choosing learning materials. 87% of faculty ranked “cost to the student” number one. If cost is a prominent decision factor why aren’t more faculty choosing OER to eliminate the cost to students? Another survey question offers some insight. When asked about the barriers to adopting OER faculty cited numerous concerns. The top five were:

·       insufficient resources in my subject

·       too difficult to find resources

·       no comprehensive catalog of resources

·       not used by other faculty I know

·       not high quality

These are certainly valid concerns, but far from insurmountable obstacles to introducing OER into many courses across the disciplines. The successful integration of OER into nearly 50 courses participating in Temple Libraries Alternate-Textbook Project demonstrates this. In exchange for receiving an award of $1,000, faculty agree to eliminate their traditional commercial textbook. Courses from the humanities, social sciences and physical sciences have all managed to identify and adopt OER as learning material.

While there is no single finding tool for all OER, subject specialist research librarians are well versed in locating OER and can assist faculty across the disciplines to identify OER. While only faculty can determine the quality of learning material, librarians can point to peer-reviewed open content.
  

Are You Getting the Results?
When it comes to learning materials, what matters most is whether students are achieving course learning goals. Even the highest quality learning materials are of limited benefit to students if they are unable to afford it. Seven out of ten students reported that they have not purchased a textbook at least once because of the expense. Faculty participants in our Alternate-Textbook Project, in their final project evaluations, typically report high satisfaction with student learning with OER and supplementary licensed-library content. When all students have equal access to learning materials they are better prepared for class. When faculty have greater control over learning content they find students are more engaged with the learning materials.
 

While there will always be courses for which a commercial textbook is the best choice of learning material, the increase in and improved discoverability of OER make it a more realistic option for faculty who wish to provide their students with affordable learning content. Your colleagues at the Center for the Advancement of Teaching  and Temple Libraries are available to assist you in exploring OER for your course. You may also learn more and explore OER resources with Temple Libraries’ Guide to OER.

Let’s Exchange EDvice!
Are you using OER resources in your course? Tell us more about how OER are working for you and your students! If you aren’t using OER, what do you see as the most convincing argument for implementing them? 

Stephanie Fiore, Senior Director, TLC

On the first day of Italian I class, I tell a story about my own experiences learning the language while studying abroad. During a conversation with my host family about the movie “Gone With The Wind”, I meant to say that whenever I saw that film, I cried and I cried (“piangevo e piangevo”); instead, I said that I rained and I rained (“piovevo e piovevo”). My hosts laughed wholeheartedly and responded “Do you snow in the winter too?” This little story never fails to get a laugh from students, but more importantly, it communicates what I want them to know – nobody has ever died of embarrassment because they made an error when trying to speak a foreign language. Errors are part of learning, so everybody just relax!

The willingness to take risks is an essential component of learning. And yet, students are often worried about making mistakes or believe they are just not good at learning languages, math, science (really anything). They may also lack confidence and are therefore anxious about the participation that may be necessary in a learning environment. I know that if I create an atmosphere that encourages risk-taking behavior in my class, these students will more likely thrive.  This fits with the literature on creating a positive climate for learning:

“Learning is not merely a cognitive process; it is substantially affected by emotional factors. Teaching can thrive only in an environment of trust that encourages students to attend, think and learn. Students need a supportive climate that provides generous room for trial and error, enables them to learn from mistakes, encourages them to take risks in overcoming difficulties in learning, and promotes their confidence in their ability to learn.” (Hativa, 255)

So how can we reduce student anxiety and increase their willingness to take risks?  

1.  Be intentional about your messages

• Express confidence to students that they can do well in your course.
• Encourage students to ask questions by explicitly telling them that questions are welcome and expected.
• Take the time to compliment a student on something specific that he or she has done well. The key here is specificity. Praise, reinforcement, encouragement and acknowledgment have all been shown to increase motivation (Gage & Berliner, 1998).
• When delivering criticism, be specific and state the critique in changeable terms – that is, make clear that improvement is possible.

2.  Clarify that learning is a process

• Admit when something is difficult to master and then work with the student to develop specific strategies to improve performance and reach mastery.
• Self-disclosure, that is, speaking from personal experience about your own learning trajectory, can remind students that expertise is developed over time.
• Help students evaluate their progress by encouraging them to critique their own work, analyze their strengths, and work on their weaknesses. For example, consider asking students to submit self-evaluation forms with one or two assignments. (Cashin, 1979; Forsyth and McMillan, 1991).

3.  Provide opportunities for trial and error

• Give students opportunities to talk about their thinking in low-stakes situations, such as asking students to brainstorm ideas in teams or making informal ungraded presentations in class.
• Provide early opportunities for success (Forsyth and McMillan, 1991).
• Allow students to write drafts of major assignments and provide targeted, clear feedback that will help them make substantive changes where necessary.

Faculty often feel the pressure to move forward quickly, as a semester is short and there is so much material to cover. But by spending a little time to create a positive climate of support, the truth is that we may find that students learn more efficiently and more effectively.

___________

Cashin, W.E., “Motivating Students”, IDEA Paper no.1, Manhattan: Center for Faculty Evaluation and Development in HIgher Education, Kansas State University, 1976.

Forsyth, D.R., and McMillan J.H. “Practical Proposals for Motivating Students.” In R.J. Menges and M.D. Svinicki (eds.), College Teaching from Theory to Practice. New Directions in Teaching and Learning, no. 45. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1991.

Gage, N. L. & Berliner, D. C. (1988). Educational psychology (4th Ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Hativa, Nira. Teaching for effective learning in higher education. Springer Science & Business Media, 2001.

Let’s Exchange Edvice

What strategies have you used successfully to reduce student anxiety and encourage them to take risks in your classes?