Span 3061: Criminal Justice and Cultures of Spain and Latin America

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID:  SPAN 3061
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a Spanish course for undergraduate or graduate students by Carmen Dagostino at California State University, San Bernardino. The open textbook provides an interdisciplinary approach to Spanish by integrating the fields of Spanish and Criminal Justice with a focus on cultural aspects, such as the perception of crime across cultures, among other topics. The materials, all in Spanish, include case studies, culture readings, and associated exercises and activities, as well as vocabulary tables, cultural notes, and introductions to Spanish dialects with associated activities. The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was to provide students with an open-access, comprehensive, all-in-Spanish, multimedia source to be integrated into the learning management system Canvas. Most students access the open textbook in PDF format as an eBook or directly in Canvas The textbook is also available here: https://www.csusb.edu/criminal-justice-spanish-certificate/textbooks-and-material

Span 3061: Criminal Justice and Cultures of Spain and Latin America 
Brief Description of course highlights:  Exploration of Hispanic cultures as related to practices in criminal justice in Spain, Latin America, and Spanish-speaking communities in the United States via case studies, culture readings, and practical application. Discussion of similarities and differences in cultural practices. Introduction of different Spanish dialects. Oral and written practice of relevant terminology. Interdisciplinary focus demonstrating cultural knowledge of diverse Hispanic cultures as pertinent to criminal justice.   Catalogue description: https://catalog.csusb.edu/search/?search=Span+3061

Student population: The course is designed for students in criminal justice, social work, sociology, psychology, and Spanish, who wish to develop and strengthen their oral and written Spanish skills specifically for their future professions in public safety and related fields. The upper division Spanish course is taught completely in Spanish. The pre-requisite is intermediate Spanish (i.e. Span 2112, 2252, 2262).

Learning or student outcomes:  The following refer to three modes of communication: interpersonal, interpretive, presentational, as well as intercultural communication, all at the ACTFL level of Intermediate Mid/High (www.actfl.org)  Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

1. Demonstrate effective use of written and oral Spanish in a variety of situations related to Criminal Justice.
    (as evidenced by your ability to complete written and oral assignments and to write reports in Spanish)
2. Interpret written and oral Spanish from a variety of sources related to Criminal Justice.
    (as evidenced by your ability to complete assignments and discuss topics based on written and oral input in Spanish)
3. Identify social and cultural factors (such as cultural practices, beliefs, and behaviors) that influence the communication between Criminal Justice professionals and the Hispanics community.
    (as evidenced by your ability to contribute to relevant discussions of case studies and culture topics in Spanish)
4. Evaluate diverse perspectives available through Hispanic cultures as related to Criminal Justice.
    (as evidenced by your ability to explore the perspectives, products, and practices of Hispanic cultures through comparisons to your own)

Key challenges faced and how resolved: For this type of interdisciplinary course, there are no textbooks other than for beginner’s level of Spanish, so to develop this upper division course you would need to pull materials from different sources and maybe offer a class reader. Students would then read textbook chapters, view PowerPoint slides, and complete exercises from various workbooks which could be confusing. Also, some materials to be incorporated might be in English, instead of Spanish. By using this open-source textbook, students can have access to a single textbook that can be easily integrated into any class management system. However, another challenge is time, as developing additional materials, such as further activities, quizzes, etc. is time-consuming. Moreover, to program every single activity in Canvas following a QLT design is tedious. The best way is to start with a simple course and then to add something new and expand each time the course is being offered.

Span3061_Syllabus_Spring2024.docx.  
Implementation in Canvas is illustrated in the attached AL$_Dagostino_Span3061_CanvasImplementation.pptx

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option. Using open-source materials saves students a lot of money. I was also able to adapt the materials for an online asynchronous course and create additional ones, such as exams and quizzes.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? I participated in the project that created the associated certificate program and specialized Spanish materials for the professions.

Sharing Best Practices: 
- Keep in mind that open-source materials rarely get updated, so be prepared to update the materials regularly.
- Also, there might be some minor mistakes (typos, etc.), since open-source materials generally don’t go through a rigorous editing process, so it’s always advisable to check everything.
-  If the materials include links to websites and or YouTube videos, make sure to save those somewhere else, as the site might change, and the videos might be removed from YouTube. 

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned. The only major challenge is having enough time, as it takes a lot of time to adapt open-source materials to fit the class needs and to develop anything that is not included in the open source materials, such as exams and quizzes. 

Instructor Name:  Carmen Dagostino
I am a professor of Spanish and Linguistics at the California State University, San Bernardino. I teach Criminal Justice Spanish courses, Healthcare Spanish courses, as well as Hispanic Linguistics courses at all levels, in addition to courses in Linguistic Anthropology. 

Please provide a link to your university page.
https://www.csusb.edu/profile/cjany

Please describe the courses you teach.
Most of the courses I teach are fully in Spanish and are offered in an asynchronous online format as they are interdisciplinary in nature, and students from various disciplines register for these courses. In my online courses I follow the QLT design to set up the courses in Canvas. Furthermore, I teach courses as part of a study abroad program in Spain in the summers.

Teaching philosophy and research interests
I teach mostly Spanish courses (all levels), in particular Spanish for the Professions, such as Criminal Justice and Healthcare. I also teach general classes in Hispanic Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition in Spanish, as well as Anthropological Linguistics and courses on California Indian Languages and Cultures in English. The latter are related to my research and publications. My research focuses on Native American Languages (especially in California and Mesoamerica), Linguistic Typology, Grammar Writing and Language Documentation, Phonetics and Phonology, and Language Contact and Bilingualism.

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: Aspectos culturales en la justicia criminal: España y Latinoamérica:
Advanced College Spanish and Hispanic Cultures for Criminal Justice.

Brief Description:  This is an interdisciplinary Spanish language and Hispanic cultures textbook that combines the disciplines of Spanish and Criminal Justice. The ten chapters cover various topics relevant to the field of criminal justice within a cultural context. The materials are presented via case studies and culture readings, both with associated activities and exercises. In addition, the various Spanish dialects are introduced throughout the textbook.

Link to the resource
https://www.csusb.edu/criminal-justice-spanish-certificate/textbooks-and-materials

Content Development
Carlos Domínguez, BA student, CSUS
Alberto García, MA student, CSUSB
Gabriela Graziani-Ramírez, MA student, CSUSB
Mariana Padilla Rábago, BA student, CSUS

Content Supervision and Development
Carmen Jany, PhD., Spanish professor, CSUSB
María Mayberry, PhD., Spanish professor, CSUS

Content Guidance and Development
Jonathan Fleck PhD., Spanish professor, CSUS
Nerea Marteache, PhD., Criminal Justice professor, CSUSB
Alexis Norris, PhD., Criminal Justice professor, CSUSB
Reveka Shteynberg PhD., Criminal Justice professor, CSUSB
Mercedes Valadez PhD., Criminal Justice professor, CSUS

Student access:  Website (see link above) and course management site Canvas. 

Supplemental resources: Audio files are available on the website, and other supplemental sources, such as answer keys and quizzes/exams, can be obtained by contacting the faculty developers.

Cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  The cost savings for students are: $100-$150, since a reader or combination of textbooks would cost between $100 and $200. The open-source eBook materials are free and can be downloaded, adapted, and used by students and professors.

License: Non-commercial Creative Commons license