7 Integrating Research into Coursework: Fostering Inclusive Pathways to Student Success

Introduction

 “Open Educational Resources, which are freely available and openly licensed educational materials, can help bridge the gap between available knowledge and its dissemination” (The World Bank, p. 43).

The chapter Integrating Research into Coursework: Fostering Inclusive Pathways to Student Success is a result of the Transformation Grant project associated with the University System of Georgia. The research was initiated by the paper’s first author and the Principal Investigator (PI) to eliminate the financial textbook burden for students. As the coordinator of the interdisciplinary Asian Studies program at Georgia Southern University, the first author and PI decided to use the Human Rights in Asia course as the foundation to apply for the grant. Although the primary goal was to aim for student success, special attention was given towards the advancement of teaching by adopting inclusive excellence as a core value. The decision to apply for the Transformation Grant was made to reduce financial burdens on students and establish an inclusive opportunity for them. No cost materials and open educational resources (OER) have allowed students to accomplish their goals without facing added financial burden and hardships.

The Paris OER Declaration (2012) and the Cape Town Declaration, (n.d.) highlighted the significance of OER and initiated an “historic moment in the growing movement for open educational resources and called on governments worldwide to openly license publicly funded educational materials for public use.” (reference, p. 1-2?) OER are freely accessible, openly licensed materials that can be used for teaching, learning, and research. These resources include textbooks, lesson plans, videos, and other learning materials that are typically shared under an open license (such as Creative Commons) that allow users to freely use, adapt, and distribute materials. UNESCO (2012) defines OER as “learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others” (p. 1-2?) For this project, OER  offers students access to various resources and databases that the university library already subscribes to. These resources come at no extra cost to either the students or the library/university, as they are intended to support students throughout the curriculum.

This chapter examines whether access to no cost materials and OER can give students enrolled in the Human Rights in Asia course an opportunity to be successful while also providing them an excellent learning experience.

The goals of the Transformation Grant project were to:

• Develop a library guide with no cost materials and OER that aligns with the course curriculum to reflect current events in Asian countries, as well as expand the coverage in the course to better reflect the importance of the issue of human rights in Asia. The current textbook does not cover this.
• Partner with the library liaison for Political Science and International Studies and the OER librarian to curate the library guide and locate no cost materials and OER to help ensure appropriate curriculum alignment with student learning objectives in the course.
• Add more multimedia learning materials from the library to the course as students’ feedback indicates they prefer more visual and auditory materials.
• Assess the use of no cost course materials to measure its effectiveness for student satisfaction and performance in the course.

At the end of the project, the results indicated that the incorporation of no cost materials and OER through the library granted students the opportunity to be adequately prepared at the onset of the semester and to successfully complete the Human Rights in Asia course and graduate.

Why OER matters: Fostering Inclusive Opportunities in Education

The Human Rights in Asia course adopted for the project is also offered as a part of the Asian Studies minor program at Georgia Southern University. This course is an upper-level elective course for students planning to complete a minor in Asian Studies, as well as for Political Science majors. With support coming from OER, this course soon became a part of the newly developed Global Security Studies concentration program. Over time, the minor became more interdisciplinary in nature and started attracting students from other departments including History, Economics, English, Gender, and Women’s Studies. The course not only attracted a diverse population of students, including first-generation, non-traditional, BIPOC, LGBTQIA, and military students, but the number of students taking the course increased significantly. Additionally, the use of multiple resources challenged students to “define what success means to them and to follow well-supported pathways to success” (p.?) (College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, n.d.; Inclusive Excellence, n.d.; Strategic Pillars, 2021).

The PI strongly embraces the notion of an intellectual community enriched and enhanced by diversity including race, ethnicity and national origins, gender, and gender identity, sexuality, class, and religion. The project is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse population of undergraduate and graduate students. The PI worked diligently to identify strategies and promote practices and structures that support diversity in the classroom and strongly encouraged individuals from underrepresented groups to join the intellectual community. The intention was to present materials and activities that were respectful of gender identity, sexuality, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, and culture.

Why do OERs facilitate transformation?

The common textbook used for this class was not only costly for students, but the price placed a significant burden on those who were already struggling to pay other college costs. Therefore, the objective to eliminate this cost for students with the help of the grant proved highly beneficial for students. Additionally, the current textbook did not adequately cover contemporary, as well as wider human rights related issues, in South and Southeast Asia. Potential areas for expanded coverage include trafficking in Asian countries, ethnic conflicts and genocide in Myanmar, organ harvesting, and women’s rights in Asia. Also notable is that the Asian Studies minor program was developed to support diversity, equity, and inclusions (DEI) initiatives by fostering a sense of connectivity and awareness within the academic community. The decision to transform the project was made to cultivate an equitable, diverse, and inclusive college community for students, while supporting the education of our diverse student body and preparing them for global citizenship.

 Over time, it became obvious that providing access to no cost materials and OER in this course allowed us to support these aspects even more and provide materials students can relate to on a much more personal level.

Assessing the Impact of OER: Enhancing Student Success and Academic Experience

Dispositional and higher order thinking are valued and emphasized in this course because they engage students in creative, reflective, and critical cognition. Every semester, I rethink my approach in response to student input and work hard to craft and develop a meaningful learning environment. My evaluations show that students find me prepared, passionate, accessible, and effective. In fact, they overwhelmingly agree that my assignments reflect the goals of the class and that I communicate my expectations clearly at the beginning of the class. They agree that I am genuinely interested in experiential teaching and that I encourage external engagement, facilitate class participation, and respect student opinions. The use of inexpensive materials and OER in this course filled an important niche. I have already stated there is no commercial textbook that adequately covers current and evolving human rights issues in South and Southeast Asia. Besides, as soon as textbooks are published, they quickly become outdated. Utilizing the library guide with no cost materials and OER allowed us to curate materials that aligned with what was happening in the world thereby enabling students to learn recent information and participate in appropriate research and scholarship in the subject area. Since the course reaches across many disciplines, the impact is greater than just on the Asian Studies minor. Additionally, students do not have the financial burden of paying for a high-cost textbook that becomes quickly outdated. My student-centred approach helps students to achieve their goals and supports their educational journey.

Student success also entails a myriad of less tangible outcomes that are often difficult to define or measure. The Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) identified in the course provided several ways to assess some of the fundamental holistic learning and development outcomes that are typically associated with student success. When asked what three things’ students liked about the course they said access to several open resources, ease of access to the course materials, and the wide variety of up-to-date information.

Institutional Impact 

We planned to promote the use of no cost materials in the department as well as involve other departments that are part of the Asian Studies minor program. More broadly, we planned to share our experiences and findings at regional or national conferences and through information sessions with faculty within the department and across campus. Materials developed in this project are publicly accessible in a library guide for anyone to customize. Our hope was to encourage other faculty members to use materials from the course and adapt them to their needs.

Inclusive and inexpensive access to the course materials for all students increased their success at the university level by aiding retention, progression, and graduation. The use of no cost materials and OER also allowed faculty to focus more on instruction and the provision of an inclusive teaching and learning environment. In addition, the collective impact of the project proved beneficial to the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion, which are regarded as strategic pillars and core values in academia today.

Was the Transformation Successful?

As Hazelrigg (2019) notes textbook spending continues to decline as the amount of money students are willing or able to spend on course materials is declining annually. Many students do not purchase textbooks for their classes, which impacts grades, class performance, retention and graduation. When the course materials are costly to purchase or rent an undue burden is placed on the students who are already struggling with the heavy costs of higher education. Students will either spend time finding a less expensive version or an older version of the book that is missing relevant materials and even lacking in current information. Eliminating the cost of materials makes it easier for students to meet the requirements necessary for graduation. The transformation of the Human Rights in Asia course allowed the creation of timely, interesting, and relevant materials, interactive exercises, proper learning outcomes and the development of processes and procedures for updating materials each semester.

The Human Rights in Asia course contains eight modules, covering a wide range of topics, such as history, ethnic diversity, religions and philosophy, human rights violations, and Asian customs. We planned to systematically review each module and update learning materials. We added more multimedia material (e.g., YouTube videos, TED talks, documentaries, feature films, etc.), updated and expanded coverages, and revised and re-designed module-based activities/assignments. Textbook chapter readings were replaced with more multimedia learning materials and course activities and assignments were revised and redesigned to better reflect recent developments and the expanded coverage of learning materials.  All course assignments were redesigned to ensure they refer to new resources within the library guide. The project also aligned course assignments with appropriate curriculum strategies. The PI worked with the library liaison who agreed to serve as a resource consultant and assist with data collection. They helped with identifying relevant OER, assessing the implementation of OER, curating materials, and developing and publishing the newly created resource material as a library guide. This library guide has modules on the institutional library website that provide training for students and faculty on how to use the library guide.

Analyzing the Impact of OER

This project was developed using the backward design framework (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005), which is an instructional design approach that helps educators plan curriculum units. This approach begins by having the designer identify desired learning outcomes and then work backward to develop assessments and instructional activities that support these outcomes. Initially, the PI pinpointed the desired results, then determined acceptable evidence, and subsequently crafted learning experiences and instructional strategies. These stages, integral to the backward design approach, successfully led to achieving the intended outcomes of the project and the course. The adoption of this framework allowed the PI to continually assess and adapt the course to ensure it met the desired outcomes effectively. Furthermore, the implementation of strategies such as qualitative and quantitative surveys demonstrated dedication to fostering inclusive and comprehensive student development (Geier, 2021). In short, the integration of these methods enabled improvement in curriculum planning, achievement of superior learning outcomes, and the promotion of more equitable access to educational materials. (see Figure I)

Figure 1

The effects of using OER on learning achievement was considered through a mixed-methods analysis.

Quantitative measures included:

• Tracking the use of the library guide through analytics in Springshare.
• Using student responses to an anonymous, ungraded quiz given at the beginning and end of the semester to measure progress against learning outcomes. Questions were tied to learning outcomes and the affordable materials used for the class. The difference between the two tests demonstrated an increase in student knowledge based on the use of no cost materials and OER.
• Using student ratings of both the course and access to materials on a 5-point scale at the end of the semester.

Qualitative measures included:

• Problems reported by students in accessing materials.
• Comments provided in the students’ exit survey.

Student Performance

At the conclusion of the study, a student satisfaction survey was employed to gauge students’ perceptions of the access, quality, and usefulness of these resources. We collected data on retention rates, mid-term grades, and final grades to assess student performance, comparing these grades with those from students in previous semesters. Additionally, overall student performance was tracked during the semester through assignment and final grades. To understand students’ willingness to use the textbook and their views on no cost materials, we posed the following questions to the students:

• Do you typically purchase course materials (textbook, software, etc.) assigned to your courses?
• How do you currently shop for course materials?
• How much did your course materials cost you last semester (not covered by financial aid?
• What measures have you taken to reduce your course material costs?
• How satisfied are you with the current textbook and other course materials?
• How frequently do you use/read the textbook assigned to your courses?
• Which course material do you prefer: a no cost library guide or a traditional textbook?
• Do you prefer the free virtual textbook and supplementary materials over a purchased hard copy?
• Rate the overall quality of the no cost materials used in this course?
• Are you capable of locating, evaluating, and using the information in this course?
• What are two specific things about the course and the instructor that helped support your learning?
• Is there anything else you would like to see in this course?

Students evaluating their experiences with no cost materials and OER commented:

I would love to take this course in the future with this instructor because I really enjoyed the OER aspect of the course, and I learned a lot of new things. Also, all the course content was easy to find.

I really enjoyed the (OER) course content. I thought that it was varied enough to learn the general topic of “Human Rights in Asia” and didn’t focus too much on one area of the continent. Although some of the content was very distressing to read about, it was important to experience that distress and made me want to learn more about the topics.

The course content was a great mixture of different sources that enriched the learning topic and brought in varying ideas on the topic. I loved the use of Ted Talks and other videos that were more interesting than just reading a lot of information. It was a great balance of both.

Student Drop/Fail/Withdraw (DFW) Rates

Was the overall comparative impact on Drop/Fail/Withdraw (DFW) rates in the semester(s) of implementation positive, neutral, or negative compared to previous semesters?

Depending on what you and your institution can measure, this may also be known as a drop/failure rate or a withdrawal/failure rate.

_______% of students, out of a total _______ students affected, dropped/failed/withdrew from the course in the final semester of implementation.

Choose One:

• _X__ Positive: This is a lower percentage of students with D/F/W than previous semester(s)

Assessing Faculty Satisfaction with Open Educational Resources (OER):

Faculty satisfaction was assessed using a survey like the one used for students. The survey questions were designed and adapted to evaluate how well the newly added materials aligned with and complemented the existing course content. Additionally, the PI invited faculty members with similar research interests to conduct a peer review at least once throughout the project. This peer review process provided valuable feedback and offered external perspectives on the course materials.

Next Steps

The PI is looking forward to updating and modifying the course content with the help of her fellow library liaison. We will continue to develop and add new OER content. In my department, there are faculty with a similar area of expertise who can teach the course. Besides, I am also planning to team teach the course in the future. The maintenance and updating of course materials will be done by the librarian in charge and myself based on the requirements. The guide can be adapted for use by other librarians or other courses in the political science program. Faculty at other institutions, who wish to have the guide adapted, can partner with their librarians to adjust the library guide based on their needs and requirements.

The transformative impact on my instruction as well as on the students and their performance was positive. To ensure that students have grasped the concepts and tools well, I will continue to use documentaries, movies, and YouTube videos as well as Application Exercises (APEXs), which support group projects, group discussions and other similar activities. For example, ‘Infotainment’ or ‘Films on Demand’ are tools where students move beyond their association with infotainment to consider popular culture as a potential space for political insight and an active learning environment. The assignments are designed in a way that students will learn at all levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.

A few months later, another milestone was reached, as this research grant offered an inclusive opportunity to brainstorm and launch an online platform. An Integral History: Asian Studies Digital Archive for Georgia Southern University and the larger academic community. The objective was to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) heritage and culture. This collaboration showcases the wealth of Asian Studies research and provides a curated collection of multi-disciplinary resources in support of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. Contributions are curated from Digital Commons, the University’s open-access institutional repository, and highlight the institution’s scholarly and cultural assets related to the Asian Studies minor. The collection represents faculty and student research, community resources, and campus events. It also includes books, photos, videos, theses and dissertations, articles, flyers, and more. An effective teaching strategy and continued involvement in research helped me to shape the inclusive and diverse teaching, research, and service requirements. The teacher, researcher, mentor, and, most importantly, the leader I am today is the result of a wealth of diverse experiences gathered throughout my global journey, characterized by creativity, innovation, commitment, hard work, and dedication. I am committed to initiating and piloting innovative and diverse programs, and leading efforts to advance ideals of inclusive excellence in higher education, professional organizations, the open pedagogy community, and within the institution. Martin Weller said, “The real power of OER lies in its ability to democratize education and reduce barriers to learning.”

Conclusion

The chapter Integrating Research into Coursework: Fostering Inclusive Pathways to Student Success indicates that the future of OER in higher education is expected to see increased adoption, improved quality, and enhanced support systems, all contributing to a more equitable and accessible educational landscape. As awareness of OER’s benefits grow, more institutions are likely to incorporate these resources into their curricula, supported by policies that promote OER use to lower costs and improve accessibility. The quality of OER is anticipated to rise further due to more rigorous peer review processes and contributions from a wider array of experts, resulting in a richer and more diverse collection of resources across various disciplines.

The OER community is also expected to expand, fostering greater collaboration among educators, institutions, and organizations. This collaboration will facilitate the exchange of best practices, resources, and innovations in OER development and use. Advances in technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, will enhance OER’s functionality and accessibility, potentially offering personalized learning experiences and improving resource searchability. It is obvious that OER has the potential to help mitigate educational inequities by providing high-quality resources at no cost. Future efforts will likely focus on ensuring that OER is accessible to all learners, including those from underrepresented or marginalized groups. Additionally, OER will become increasingly integrated with digital learning platforms and tools, like Learning Management Systems (LMS) and educational apps, streamlining access and creating a more seamless learning experience.

As the demand for OER continues to rise, sustainable funding models will be critical for their development and maintenance. Institutions, governments, and private organizations must explore diverse funding strategies to ensure the ongoing growth and accessibility of OER. By adopting OER, institutions can create more inclusive, flexible, and student-centered learning environments, contributing to a future of education that is more adaptive and equitable. Support from institutions and governments will be essential for the promotion and long-term viability of OER. It is important to recognize that policies that foster the creation and use of OER will be key to this effort. Such initiatives will be pivotal in shaping the future of higher education.

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