2 Leveraging Open Pedagogy to Create an Authentic and Renewable Curriculum

Leveraging Open Pedagogy to Create an Authentic and Renewable Curriculum 

Financial barriers prevent many higher education students from accessing essential course materials. The impact of these costs is especially prevalent among students from lower-income backgrounds, first-generation students, and other historically underrepresented groups within higher education, who often feel the burden of textbook costs more acutely (Jenkins et al., 2020). Proponents of open education actively seek to address such challenges by promoting the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) as a cost-free and viable alternative to commercial textbooks. OER not only contributes to making higher education more affordable and accessible for students but also empowers instructors to customize content creatively, tailor it to their audience, and open up the potential to equip their students with more impactful teaching resources (Jhangiani & Biswas-Diener, 2017)

In this chapter, we present the successful redesign of an Applied Ecology course at North Carolina State University led by Dr. Erin McKenney and driven by the integration of OER with open-enabled practices. Through the adoption of OER, Dr. McKenney guided her students in the collaborative creation of knowledge, advancing a dynamic learning environment. This approach not only granted students access to learning materials without financial constraints but also inspired and supported their active involvement in generating and disseminating knowledge. An intrinsic connection between OER and open pedagogy becomes evident in how the development of OER aligns with the principles of open pedagogy, placing emphasis on collaboration, student engagement, and the cultivation of an inclusive and participatory learning experience.

Open pedagogy, as described by DeRosa and Jhangiani (2019), is “a site of praxis, a place where theories about learning, teaching, technology, and social justice enter into a conversation with each other and inform the development of educational practices and structure.” It is grounded in the principles of open access and sharing, and the belief that knowledge should be freely accessible to all. Emphasizing the use of OER, open pedagogy strives to eliminate barriers to learning by providing freely accessible materials that can be reused, modified, and shared, commonly relying on creative commons licensing to preserve this openness (Wiley & Hilton, 2018). This philosophy extends beyond content, encouraging educators to create learning environments that promote collaboration and active student participation. In open pedagogy, the role of the educator evolves into that of a facilitator, guiding students to become active contributors to their own education. By engaging in collaborative projects, students not only consume knowledge but also actively participate in its creation, cultivating critical thinking skills and a sense of ownership over their learning experience.

Faculty interest and awareness of open practices and OER is steadily increasing. In a 2023 survey by Bay View Analytics and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 72% of faculty reported being “aware” or “very aware” of OER (Seaman & Seaman, 2023). This increase in interest may be attributed, at least in part, to the significant rise in textbook and course material costs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of college textbooks increased 88% between 2006-2016 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2019), and the College Board estimated that, in the 2022-2023 academic year, undergraduates at four-year public universities were expected to budget $1,240 to cover the average cost of books and supplies for a single academic year (College Board, 2022). The rise in the cost of course materials and other supplies has served to create an environment whereby an estimated 65% of undergraduate students report foregoing the purchase of required course materials, citing cost as the cause (Vitez & Nagle, 2021).

It is not solely the financial burden that affects student success; the expense of course materials has other impacts on students’ academic achievements. According to a 2022 survey involving over 13,000 college students in Florida, the costs associated with required textbooks were linked to poor grades, failed courses, and decisions not to register for specific classes. These factors negatively impacted degree attainment and graduation timelines emphasizing the trade-off students make to afford materials (Florida Virtual Campus, 2022). By contrast, in a large-scale study across 215 community colleges, students randomly assigned to OER sections showed higher retention and persistence rates compared to non-OER sections. However, completion rates and final exam scores did not significantly differ between groups. These findings highlight the potential of OER in enhancing students’ success in higher education (Bol et al., 2021) and compliments earlier research at the University of Georgia, which found that students with free access to course materials improved their academic performance (Colvard et al., 2018).

The link between textbook costs and open pedagogy underscores a shift towards more accessible, inclusive and student-centered education approaches. One of the ways in which this shift manifests itself is through “renewable assignments.” Wiley (2016) contrasts renewable assignments to “closed assignments” which, once graded, have an “ultimate destiny [in] the garbage can.” Wiley and Hilton (2018) note that while disposable assignments can result in powerful student learning within their specific contexts, they also lead to millions of hours of work being done, graded, and ultimately discarded each year. Renewable assignments, Wiley argues, differ in that the student’s work won’t be discarded at the end of the process, but will instead add value to the world in some way. Wiley continues: “Replacing disposable assessments with renewable assessments goes a long way toward re-humanizing education, giving students a reason to care about and truly invest in their work” Renewable assignments themselves can take many different forms, from students creating and editing Wikipedia entries (Haenn, 2018) to students using Hypothesis to socially annotate publicly available articles (D’Agostino, 2022). Regardless of the type of renewable assignment, every instance is “renewable” because students’  contributions’ contributions  remain visible and outlast the time spent in the classroom, ultimately benefiting the global knowledge commons. This change was highlighted in a study by Clinton-Lisell and Gwozdz (2023), where students overwhelmingly reported higher levels of motivation with renewable assignments compared to traditional assignments. Importantly, students perceived more opportunities to share their stories and experiences based on their identities and background with renewable assignments (Clinton-Lisell & Gwozdz, 2023). The North Carolina State University Libraries leads two programs to support the development of OER: the Open Pedagogy Incubator and the Alt-Textbook Project.

Open Pedagogy Incubator

The Open Pedagogy Incubator is a comprehensive, multi-semester program that explores educational intervention and innovations beyond the initial step of adopting OER (Cross et al., 2020). Originally launched at NC State, it has evolved into a statewide initiative, with faculty instructors from institutions across North Carolina participating in annual cohorts. The Incubator brings together an interdisciplinary community where educators share their experiences and pedagogical approaches. The program aims to equip educators with competencies in open pedagogy through hands-on workshops, curated readings, and cohort discussions. Participants collaborate to design custom interventions—including the integration of renewable assignments—that enhance student engagement and support learning outcomes. Through these exchanges, faculty explore alternative instructional approaches, reflect on inclusive pedagogies, and connect with open pedagogy discipline experts for guidance on copyrights and licensing.

Alt-Textbook Project

NC State University instructors can apply for an Alt-Textbook grant to support a variety of different OER development projects. Recipients are awarded funding to support project development. Most recipients use their award to recruit external expertise (e.g., videographer, graphic designer, etc.) or hire a student assistant to curate or compile content. Each recipient is also assigned a librarian liaison from the Alt-Textbook committee to identify support and resources necessary for the success of the project. The liaison provides support across the life of the project, from conception to completion and sometimes even beyond. The liaison typically helps the recipient receive funding from the library’s financial office, checks in regularly with the recipient to answer any questions and accommodate resource needs, and helps the recipient to navigate the grant process and best practices for implementing open pedagogy and OERs, including copyright and licensing.

The majority of Alt-Textbook grants have supported the development of open conventional textbooks (see, for example, A BIT of Metagenomics by Dr. Carlos Goller (Goller & Students, 2019). However, other grant recipients have pursued innovative products in other formats. For example, Dr. Maria Gallardo-Williams developed a series of virtual reality chemistry labs (Gallardo-Williams & Dunnagan, 2022). While the library provides funding for the project, success is ultimately attributed to a system of relationships, communications, and resources.

Each Alt-Textbook project is unique and requires different resources, with different campus partners being asked to support recipients in achieving their specific project goals. Other library services that typically support the grants include subject-specialist librarians, digital media specialists, and technical support for online tools and software (e.g., Pressbooks). Beyond content curation, the Digital Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA) office at NC State University can assist with accessibility issues and course design that is compatible with the University’s learning management system. The Alt-Textbook liaison may also connect the recipient with the Disability Resource Office (DRO) if more advanced accessibility support is required for the final product.

Redesigning a Course to Implement Open Pedagogy 

Dr. Erin McKenney participated in the NC State University Libraries’ inaugural Open Pedagogy Incubator (OPI) cohort in 2020-2021. Dr. McKenney was impressed both by the staggering statistics on financial barriers to student learning and by the diverse approaches instructors can take to simultaneously remove those barriers and engage students in assignments that have meaning beyond the classroom. Dr. McKenney began to brainstorm ways to integrate open pedagogy into all of her courses, with a particular interest in redesigning her Applied Ecology course (AEC 400) around an open pedagogy framework. Applied Ecology extends the general principles of ecology to address grand challenges in a changing world. Students interpret data from published studies and synthesize literature across diverse research systems to identify overarching themes and discuss the nuance and context-dependence that makes climate change, over-harvesting, habitat loss, altered nutrient cycles, and the spread of invasive species such difficult problems to address. While Dr. McKenney’s department doesn’t (yet) offer an undergraduate major, AEC 400 is required for students enrolled in the Applied Ecology minor and a few other programs across campus. Students who take AEC 400 tend to major in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology; Environmental Sciences; Biology; Zoology; and Animal Science. The course is capped at 50 students and meets twice a week, for 75 minutes. One day is lecture-based and one day is a hands-on problem-solving day where students apply lecture concepts to case studies. Group activities help students build transferable skills in data analysis, graphing, and the critical synthesis of published articles and empirical data.

The first year Dr. McKenney taught AEC 400, she had only a few weeks to develop the course before the semester started. Dr. McKenney made the historically required textbook (priced at $125 when new) optional and expanded the scope of the course beyond its original focus on fisheries; however, kept exams as the primary assessment tool (75% of the final grade; Figure 1). After learning about the Alt-Textbook project, Dr. McKenney redesigned the course so that students’ assignments would contribute content toward an open access digital textbook. Dr. McKenney deconstructed the exams into weekly quizzes to check student understanding, created a scaffolded term project that students could complete as a research paper or un-essay format (e.g., podcast, artwork, website), and added iterative low-stakes assignments to give students multiple opportunities to practice and improve their skills in written and visual science communication. Three primary assignments contributed to textbook content: blog-style collaborative writing assignments, BioRender figures, and Featured Ecologist profiles.

Figure 1

Grading scheme for Applied Ecology (AEC 400) in 2019 vs 2020

Note. Assignments with asterisks (*, also in bold) produce student-created content for the Applied Ecology digital textbook (McKenney, 2023).

Collaborative Writing Assignments

In the first week of class, teams of 2-3 students signed up to write about a topic of their choice. They worked in a shared Google Document so that Dr. McKenney could verify that all students contributed using version history. In the first year (2020), students turned in bulleted outlines for their collaborative writing assignments; so, Dr. McKenney revised future prompts to specifically require a blog-style narrative. Even before the textbook was created, the collaborative notes from previous years were posted on the learning management system course page to help students learn and study course materials. This approach also gave the assignments additional “open pedagogy” meaning and purpose, even in the early years. Dr. McKenney continued to revise the prompts for collaborative writing assignments to first summarize each topic covered (2021), then to extend the material in a Spotlight on NC feature (2022), and most recently to propose ways to apply each topic to a changing world (2023) (see RESOURCES FOR EDUCATORS – COLLABORATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENTS in Applied Ecology; McKenney, 2023). The Spotlight on NC feature, in particular, linked directly to NC State’s institutional mission, further demonstrating the legitimacy and value of the project.

BioRender Figures

Every student created three figures to illustrate ecological concepts using BioRender, an online software that enables users to create illustrations without artistic “talent” or graphic design training (Perkel, 2020). Dr. McKenney shared best practices for figure design in class, provided exemplary submissions from past semesters, and shared personal feedback on each assignment to help students build confidence and visual communication skills. Dr. McKenney issued the same set of prompts for all three assignments from 2019-2022 to build the initial bank of content for the textbook but has since revised the prompts to clarify specific concepts that students previously struggled to understand (see RESOURCES FOR EDUCATORS – BIORENDER FIGURE ASSIGNMENTS in Applied Ecology; McKenney, 2023).

Featured Ecologist Profiles

In addition to growing their science communication skills, Dr. McKenney asked each student to create a Featured Ecologist profile to highlight the ecologist of their choice. Dr. McKenney specified what content should be include (i.e., information about the researcher with a BioRender graphic and 250-word summary highlighting their contributions to ecology) and provided a template to ensure all Featured Ecologist profiles had similar layouts  (layouts (see RESOURCES FOR EDUCATORS – FEATURED ECOLOGIST ASSIGNMENT in Applied Ecology; McKenney, 2023). The goal of this assignment was to celebrate the many people and approaches to ecology, while also helping students identify potential role models who shared aspects of their identity.

Compiling the Textbook

After collecting students’ assignments for four years, Dr. McKenney received an Alt-Textbook grant to compile the materials into Pressbooks. Pressbooks is a digital subscription tool where instructors can author and curate open textbooks. This platform was appealing for three reasons: (1) its digital content is accessible across multiple devices; (2) the textbook format is familiar, thereby encouraging feelings of legitimacy for student contributors; and (3) it centers student ownership by empowering them to decide what they want in their textbook. Dr. McKenney was paired with a subject-specialist librarian for ecology to discover open resources related to the different topics covered in the textbook. Additional library staff also helped Dr. McKenney format and compile content in Pressbooks.

Dr. McKenney used Alt-Textbook funding to hire Emily Rund, a graduate student in Zoology with an interest in education, who was keen to learn more about the process and decision-making of editing a textbook. Emily helped curate and format student-created content into the Pressbooks platform. While compiling the content for each chapter, Emily recorded which topics would be better understood through a BioRender figure and developed skeleton notes to guide student note taking. Emily’s suggestions shaped the prompts for future BioRender figure assignments and enhanced the utility of the open textbook. The Applied Ecology textbook (McKenney, 2023) was published in August 2023 and then integrated into the course as a formal requirement in Fall 2023. Students are now required to read a chapter each week to prepare for topical discussions, and annotate the reading using a social annotation software (Hypothesis, n.d.). Student annotations can clarify content, relate concepts to pre-existing knowledge, extend concepts beyond the provided examples, and reveal which textbook features either support their learning or need improving.

For and As Assessments

Dr. McKenney developed student learning outcomes that measured mastery of disciplinary content and aligned to professional skills that were transferable beyond her classroom. After completing AEC 400, students should have be able to identify and explain fundamental principles in the ecological sciences; explain and critique published ecological research; identify specific examples linking ecological concepts to real-world environmental challenges, including JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion) issues; communicate ecological concepts via original figures, scientific writing, and other creative formats; and apply ecological knowledge to real-world problems. The BioRender figures, Featured Ecologist profiles, and collaborative writing assignments enabled Dr. McKenney to (1) assess whether students had achieved the course’s learning outcomes and (2) provide feedback, which supported students’ skill development over the course of the semester. The open textbook framework also enhanced student learning by elevating each assignment product as a future learning tool, which allowed students to teach peers in future cohorts and cement their own understanding of concepts (Cohen et al., 1982). Drawing facilitates explaining, and students who draw and explain concepts experience greater learning gains compared to students who only draw or write (Fiorella & Kuhlmann, 2020). If a student understands a concept well enough to illustrate it and/or explain the relevant ecological processes to a learner, then they have achieved the learning outcome for that unit. Dr. McKenney used specifications grading, for which they provide a list of the components required for each assignment and the number of points per component to clearly articulate the requirements for each assignment (University of Pittsburgh, 2014). Templates were provided for the Featured Ecologist profiles and writing assignments to ensure that all textbook content was formatted consistently. The completed products contributed content to Pressbooks, and the book itself continued to inform the development of additional content in future sections of the course. For example, Dr. McKenney has created new prompts for additional BioRender figures to illustrate concepts in the text that students find challenging.

After compiling the content for the first chapter, Dr. McKenney hosted a 2-hour focus group in November 2022 with former AEC 400 students to help optimize the format for students. The focus group identified several ways to make the text more user-friendly – for example, one student suggested that all vocabulary terms be listed at the beginning of each chapter. Another student suggested that “an explanation of the layout would be helpful,” inspiring Dr. McKenney to write a section explaining the format and purpose of each component to readers (see “About this Book” in Applied Ecology; McKenney, 2023). The focus group participants also identified unique aspects of the course and brainstormed ideas that inspired the cover art, which was created by a graduate who took the class in Fall 2022.

As Dr. McKenney and Emily compiled the textbook, they tagged concepts that would benefit from a BioRender figure and Dr. McKenney updated the BioRender assignment prompts for Fall 2023 to fill those “illustration gaps” in the text. Dr. McKenney’s students have also provided feedback by using Hypothesis to annotate book chapters. Students have commented on ecological concepts to clarify understanding and extend knowledge, and on aspects of the textbook that have either supported their learning or could be improved. Dr. McKenney has used these informal annotations to inform the continued revision of content and future assignments, including which aspects of the book have most enhanced student learning. In this way, the “living textbook” has become not only a reference for knowledge, but also a resource for developing the next round of assessments.

In November 2023, Dr. McKenney distributed a Google Form survey to explore the efficacy of using OERs as learning tools, to gather insights into future content for the “living” textbook via student-suggested prompts, and to uncover topics for future collaborative writing assignments. The IRB at NC State University reviewed and approved the analysis of the survey as secondary data under their FLEX special exemption category. Twenty-nine of the 39 students enrolled in the course (74.35%) completed the survey. Respondents generally considered educational materials to be effective and successful if they understood the material better and remained engaged. According to their own definitions, all 29 students (100%) considered the Applied Ecology textbook to be an effective learning tool, and 28/29 (96.55%) felt that the Applied Ecology textbook project successfully enhanced their learning as a contributor. Knowing that their assignments would contribute content to the textbook generally increased students’ investment and motivation while completing the collaborative writing, BioRender, and Featured Ecologist assignments. Twenty students (68.97% of respondents) shared they took greater care to explain concepts clearly and thoroughly for future readers than if the assignments would just “disappear from existence” at the end of the semester, while 5 students (17.24%) maintained that their investment and motivation were not impacted by the format of graded assignments. Respondents overwhelmingly agreed that the textbook was easy to access, helpful, interesting, and of high quality and value (Table 1).

Table 1

Most students appreciated the accessibility of the open access textbook and perceived it as having high quality and added value compared to traditional textbooks.

Note. Survey feedback was collected from 29 students enrolled in Applied Ecology (AEC 400) in Fall 2023 at NC State University. Students responded to survey questions using a 4-point Likert scale.

When asked to reflect on the impact of specific components of the textbook, students identified the vocabulary lists, overarching themes and unifying concepts, BioRender figures, Applications to Grand Challenges, and clickable glossary to be the most helpful for their learning (Table 2). While the Spotlight on NC, Unsolved Mysteries and Future Research, and Featured Ecologist profiles did not receive as high of scores as other components in terms of supporting learning, they still positively impacted students. Students consistently commented in Hypothesis annotations that the Spotlight on NC and the Unsolved Mysteries and Future Research components helped them better understand how relevant ecology is to our state and our future, while the Featured Ecologist highlights helped them build a stronger sense of identity and belonging in the discipline.

Table 2

Most students found the textbook components supported their learning, with Vocabulary, Overarching Themes and Unifying Concepts, and BioRender figures identified as the most helpful.

Note. Survey feedback was collected from 29 students enrolled in Applied Ecology (AEC 400) in fall 2023 at NC State University.

What do I wish I had Done Differently?

Using specific examples from Dr. McKenney’s work, the following presents general guidance for other educators trying to implement OER tools for and as assessment. Most of these tips should be implemented during the early stages of project development (i.e., assignment design) and content compilation to avoid additional revisions later.

Formatting

Formatting a textbook online can be challenging. While the Pressbooks User Guide claims that content can be imported from EPUB, Word document, OpenOffice documents, Pressbooks/WordPress XML, or web page formats, we found that a lot of the formatting was lost in transition from Word document to Pressbooks – meaning that we had to invest additional time in formatting content within Pressbooks. For future projects, we now know to hold all formatting efforts until after the content is imported to maximize efficiency. We would recommend that editors keep a record of the settings used to format the first chapter in a template as it will help guide all subsequent content for consistency and future reference. It’s also worth considering whether the digital book will ever be printed. If so, somebody would need to reformat the content to suit the dimensions and layout of a printed book, including adjusting font sizes, margins, and page breaks. Images optimized for digital display would also probably need adjustments for print to ensure they appear crisp and clear.

Images also require a thoughtful approach to avoid copyright issues. All contributors should make sure to use CC BY licensed images. Dr. McKenney revised her collaborative writing prompt in 2021 to require that students include citations / sources for all figures. Dr. McKenney also suggested that students  use Advanced Google Image searches to find openly licensed images (Google Advanced Image Search, n.d.), and/or to search a database of openly licensed images such as Creative Commons (Creative Commons, n.d.), Pixabay (Pixabay, n.d.), or the Noun Project (Noun Project, n.d.). Despite these measures, Dr. McKenney and Emily still had to review all images in student assignments from 2019-2020 to determine whether images used had creative commons attribution—and to replace  images with all rights reserved or unknown copyright status with openly licensed images

There is power in open access tools, and there are constraints associated with free subscriptions. For example, BioRender’s Basic (free) subscription is limited to 5 files (either created or shared) and low-resolution image export. Users must upgrade to a premium subscription ($79/month for a single user) to gain access to unlimited files, high-resolution image export, and prioritized fulfillment of additional illustration requests. Students have developed workarounds by importing images of specific plants or animals of interest, but those workarounds are less than ideal.

One common theme that emerged from this reflection is that paid-for products have more functionality than free products. We recommend that educators consider what specific features or functionalities they need, where funding may come from, and how to advise students on using software. This preliminary planning will maximize productivity and student impact, while minimizing growing pains or “buyer’s remorse” across the life of a project. However, we also recognize that assignments evolve as instructors reflect and refine their vision for a project, whether the end product is attaining student learning outcomes or the creation of OER. It’s okay to change assignments as a way to accommodate the parameters of online textbooks (e.g., which type of documents are screen readable) or to avoid student confusion.

Finally, as Dr. McKenney’s project is a “living” textbook, they continue to collect student-created content and feedback via Hypothesis annotations. Throughout Fall 2023, Dr. McKenney tagged student questions and suggestions in Hypothesis as “corrections”, with the intention to filter all tagged comments and update the textbook content in one fell swoop after the semester concluded. In retrospect, it will be more efficient to make future edits while reading Hypothesis annotations in real-time during the current semester, when the content and classroom discussions are fresh.

Conclusion and Broader Implications

Dr. McKenney’s Applied Ecology course offers an inspiring roadmap for open education. Students in the course have made significant use of materials that illustrate the impact of open education as a collection of tools and practices that reach far beyond the classroom. While we often focus on OER and especially open textbooks, this course also led to an amazing set of digital exhibits shown in NC State’s Hill and Hunt Libraries (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Students created profiles of different Pokemon to identify distinguishing features and predict the adaptive purpose of each trait.

Note. This activity challenged students to review and apply concepts of evolution and adaptation. After identifying salient morphological traits and inferring their function, students reflected on which environmental conditions they would select for each trait and ultimately proposed a specific habitat where their Pokemon likely evolved. Dr. McKenney worked with Jason Evans Groth, Digital Media Librarian for Learning Spaces and Services, to curate a digital exhibit of student works, which is on display in DH Hill Library. All images were used with students’ permission.

Likewise, students’ use of tools such as Hypothesis and BioRender proved effective and inspiring for students in ways that applied to student work in other classes, in generating posters, and so forth. Other educators should consider how they might transition their own courses toward open education as a strategy not just for adopting free and open materials but to support work that goes beyond the traditional “throwaway” assignment.

This course also illustrates the impact that open education can make on student learning, an impact ratified by student outcomes and student responses to the survey. Open education measurably increased student learning gains, student engagement, and investment in the course through renewable assignments and community conversations using Hypothesis.

Open educational resources themselves provide a framework for measuring those impacts. Hypothesis annotations provide evidence that “digesting” and discussing assigned readings in an asynchronous digital community enhances student understanding and confidence in preparation for in-class discussion. The annotations and conversations also provide students the opportunity to scaffold their learning by relating current course materials to previously learned concepts and to lived experiences outside of the classroom. Together, the annotations provide a wealth of insight to students’ learning experiences – importantly, in their own words and voices.

As NC State continues to expand the university’s efforts around open education, there is tremendous opportunity to sustain existing work and expand support. Libraries’ support for the Alt-Textbook project and Open Incubators is ongoing and has been expanded to connect educators across the 17-university UNC System. A new version of the Incubator focused on critical engagement with digital tools such as artificial intelligence is also in development.

Courses such as Dr. McKenney’s are significant catalysts for modeling an open community on campus. Success stories naturally illuminate the potential of this work for colleagues and administrators who may be skeptical or unaware of the potential of open education. Likewise, participants in this course – and many others like it – can be champions for open education and members of a collaborative community that learns from and supports each other.

For the global open community, this unification of OER and open pedagogy offers an established model that should also point to many other opportunities for educators and supporters of open education. For educators, this case study emphasizes the value of connecting materials and practice at every stage. From opening resources and practices to the critical use of tools like BioRender and Hypothesis, this course succeeded because it engaged with materials, which supported better work, and so forth in a virtuous cycle.

This collaborative, iterative approach to openness was exemplified using OER as assessment. Educators can build on this example of the principle that teaching, drawing, and otherwise making knowledge not only demonstrates but actively cements understanding of that knowledge. Educators should also take a cue from the ways this course centered student agency and interest by providing autonomy and regularly soliciting feedback. The use of focus groups to develop immediate, concrete changes in response to student experience certainly contributed to the overwhelming student satisfaction expressed in the final survey.

Supporters of open education can likewise take lessons from this course. The libraries’ support for open education in several modalities – the materials-focused Alt-Textbook program, the practice focused Incubator, and so forth – helps meet educators where they are rather than forcing them into (or more likely excluding them from) a prescriptive box. For educators, such as Dr. McKenney who are prepared to engage in innovative course revision, the programs could work together to offer a full suite of support. This flexible approach was particularly effective because the community-centered nature of NC State’s open education work keeps the people and values at the heart of all open education initiatives.

With these broad implications in mind, we should also consider the limitations of the study design and the opportunities to extend research on open pedagogy and renewable curricula. This case study features results from a subset of students enrolled in a single course at a single institution. Beyond these limitations to generalizability, Dr. McKenney may have had an outsized impact on student perceptions of OERs and open pedagogy given the relatively small class size of 45 students. In a smaller course, an instructor can engage more deeply and frequently with each student than in higher enrollment courses. Dr. McKenney also began the semester by explaining how OER would be ingrained in the format of the course, which could have influenced how students viewed and interacted with the materials. Similarly, Dr. McKenney’s stated interest in their perceptions of OER and the course design could have influenced students’ willingness to engage with and reflect on those elements of the course. Opportunities remain to explore student perceptions both at other institutions and in larger courses that center student contributions to a living OER as a core form of assessment. Such research would be valuable to compare the feasibility of these models in courses where student-instructor interaction is less frequent.

Supporters and educators are invited to follow the models demonstrated in this case study, to borrow and adapt parts that may fit into their own work, and most of all to join the community doing this work. Using OER and open-enabled practices as a space for assessment can be transformative for students, educators, and the open community.

Acknowledgements

The Applied Ecology PressBooks project was funded by an Alt-Textbook Project grant through NC State University Libraries. Emily Rund helped to curate and format the PressBooks content, and developed additional prompts and skeleton note resources that further enhanced the textbook. We are also grateful to the students who contributed their time, creativity, and feedback to this and every collaborative educational effort.

References

Bol, L., Esqueda, M. C., Ryan, D., & Kimmel, S. C. (2021). A Comparison of Academic Outcomes in Courses Taught With Open Educational Resources and Publisher Content. Educational Researcher, 51(1), 17–26. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X211052563

Clinton-Lisell, V., & Gwozdz, L. (2023). Understanding Student Experiences of Renewable and Traditional Assignments. College Teaching, 71(2), 125–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2023.2179591

Cohen, P. A., Kulik, J. A., & Kulik, C.-L. C. (1982). Educational Outcomes of Tutoring: A Meta-analysis of Findings. American Educational Research Journal, 19(2), 237–248.

College Board. (2022). TRENDS IN HIGHER EDUCATION SERIES Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2022 (MAR-5555; p. 53). https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/trends-in-college-pricing-student-aid-2022.pdf

Colvard, N. B., Watson, C. E., & Park, H. (2018). The impact of open educational resources on various student success metrics. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 30(2), 262-276

Creative Commons. (n.d.). Creative Commons. Retrieved February 22, 2024, from https://creativecommons.org/

Cross, W., Burke, A., & Strawbridge, J. (2020, March 28). Open Pedagogy Incubator. OSF. https://osf.io/gyrzb/

DeRosa, R., & Jhangiani, R. (2019). Open Pedagogy. Open Pedagogy Notebook https://openpedagogy.org/open-pedagogy/

Fiorella, L., & Kuhlmann, S. (2020). Creating drawings enhances learning by teaching. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(4), 811–822. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000392

Florida Virtual Campus. (2022). 2022 Student Textbook and Instructional Materials Survey: Results and Findings. Florida Virtual Campus. https://assets.website-files.com/646e59f2d76c6e8c0c5223de/64de6132148ed7739bc186e4_FLVC%20Textbook%20Survey%20Report%20-%202022.pdf

Gallardo-Williams, M. T., & Dunnagan, C. L. (2022). Designing Diverse Virtual Reality Laboratories as a Vehicle for Inclusion of Underrepresented Minorities in Organic Chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 99(1), 500–503. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00321

Goller, C., & Students, B. 477/577 F. 2019. (2019). BIT 477/577 Metagenomics. https://ncstate.pressbooks.pub/metagenomics/

D’Agostino, S. (2022, October 11). With Online Social Annotation, Students Read Together. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/10/12/social-annotation-technology-helps-students-read-together

Google Advanced Image Search. (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2024, from https://www.google.com/advanced_image_search

Haenn, N. (2018, January 26). Finding a voice in the public conversation. Wiki Education. https://wikiedu.org/blog/2018/01/26/finding-a-voice-in-the-public-conversation/

Hypothesis. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22, 2024, from https://web.hypothes.is/

Jenkins, J. J., Sánchez, L. A., Schraedley, M. A. K., Hannans, J., Navick, N., & Young, J. (2020). Textbook Broke: Textbook Affordability as a Social Justice Issue (1). 2020(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.549

Jhangiani, R. S., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2017). Open. In Ubiquity Press. Ubiquity Press. https://doi.org/10.5334/bbc

McKenney, E. (2023). Applied Ecology. North Carolina State University. https://doi.org/10.52750/147069

Noun Project. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22, 2024, from https://thenounproject.com/

Perkel, J. M. (2020). Graphic content: Picturing science. Nature, 582(7810), 137-138.

Pixabay. (n.d.). Retrieved February 22, 2024, from https://pixabay.com/

Seaman, J. E., & Seaman, J. (2023). Digitally Established: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2023. https://www.bayviewanalytics.com/reports/digitallyestablished-2023.pdf

University of Pittsburgh. (2014, May 15). Advocating a new way of grading. https://www.utimes.pitt.edu/archives/?p=30598

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2019). College tuition and fees increase 63 percent since January 2006: The Economics Daily: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. TED: The Economics Daily. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2016/college-tuition-and-fees-increase-63-percent-since-january-2006.htm

Vitez, K., & Nagle, C. (2021). Fixing the Broken Textbook Market: Third Edition. US PIRG. https://publicinterestnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Fixing-the-Broken-Textbook-Market-3e-February-2021.pdf

Wiley, D. (2016, July 7). Toward Renewable Assessments – improving learning. Improving Learning: Eclectic, Pragmatic, Enthusiastic. https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/4691

Wiley, D., & Hilton, J. L. (2018). Defining OER-Enabled Pedagogy. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 19(4). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v19i4.3601