Professional Writing & Business Ethics OER Redesign

Course ID: ENGL 3010

Abstract: During summer and fall 2022, Dr. Kathy Rose invested time into converting her ENGL 3010 Professional Writing and Business Ethics course to OER materials. The goal of the project was to reduce the cost to students and improve the relevance of the instruction material. The new course was implemented during the Spring 2023 semester.

Textbook Titles: 

Description: Dr. Rose utilized several different resources to provide the free content to the students. [insert about books]. These replace a previous $100 textbook.

Cost savings: The enrollment for Spring 2023 was 20 students. This equates to a textbook cost savings of approximately $2,000 per year that will accumulate every year going forward.

ENGL 3010: Professional Writing & Business Ethics

Description:  Students will understand a common ethical framework, be able to identify when business ethical issues arise and apply the framework to analyze and resolve them. Students also will be able to effectively recognize and model diverse professional communication styles by analyzing various business audiences, writing and presentation purposes, and documents (including extensive formal research reports) based on business communication theory, ethical frameworks and practical application.  

Curricular changes: Along with the open and free material, Dr. Rose also took the opportunity to redesign the assessments and grade distribution for the course. 

Teaching and learning impacts: 

Comparing the Spring 2023 semester with the previous semester in 2022 indicates a 29% increase in A grades along with an increase in B+. These come from a reduction in B-D grade ranges. Most noticeably is a reduction in the amount of DFW with none appearing in 2023 compared to 7 in 2022.

Sample syllabus: ENGL 3010-04 Rose SP23.pdf

Student feedback about using OER:  A survey was also distributed to gather the students’ perspectives on the course material. There were a total of 6 respondents equating to a response rate of 30%. 100% of students rated the material as the same or better quality compared to texts in other courses. When asked what made the quality of the materials better, a few students noted it was “This material was relevant and up-to-date and was able to provide real-life examples.” Lastly, a student submitted “with this method of resources the instructor was able to find the best parts of all free online resources instead of committing fully to a textbookk [sic] that might be diluted with unimportant information or may not have everything that is needed.” A majority of the students noted they felt more prepared and engaged with using the OER material, and they felt they achieved the learning outcomes of the course using the material.

Institutional Support for OER:  Dr. Rose was provided a stipend and support from the UT Library's OER Program.

Student access: Students are able to access the OER material through links in Canvas. 

Dr. Kathy Rose is an Instructor of English at Utah Tech University English Department.