Rik Andes ENGL 1010D: Introduction to Writing

Description: 

For this semester, I used the OER textbooks The ENGL 1010 Student’s Guide to the Essays, by Rik Andes, and The Art of Academic Writing, by Mike Peterson. Previously, I had students using The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings and Handbook along with The Art of Academic Writing, so incorporating the other OER textbook saved my students approximately $100 (the 6th edition on Amazon ranges in price from $79.46-$103.75 for a hardback to $95.16-$103.75 for a paperback copy). 

Curricular changes: 

There were a number of readings that I could no longer use because the students didn’t have access to them in the Norton textbook, so I had to look through the essays and readings that I did have and make sure those would still work. I had to spread some out and relocate others to make sure all my curricular needs were covered. I also had to work my new textbook into the course and figure out what they would be reading and when. I added weekly reading quizzes to ensure that students were actually engaging with the assigned course materials. I recommended that students use the audio recordings to supplement their textbook readings, particularly for any students dealing with dyslexia or ADHD. There weren’t a lot of major curricular changes outside of those because, when I decided not to use the Norton text, I looked closely at what was now missing and wrote my textbook to cover those gaps. I didn’t set out to completely redesign how I presented the information or structured the class. 

Teaching and learning impacts: 

I do believe that the OER materials have had an impact on my students’ learning. I have had a number of students comment to me that they particularly enjoyed my textbook specifically because they could listen to it as they read. These were students who confessed to not enjoying reading because they never understood what they were reading and couldn’t get through the materials without getting distracted. Reading my text while listening to me, though, allowed them not only to complete the readings but to understand them better as well. I even had one student that I know of register in my ENGL 2010 section because she was hoping to have access to the same kind of audio recordings in the new course that she had in ENGL 1010.

OER Adoption Process

Utah Tech University has recently increased its drive for faculty to use more OER materials in their classes to reduce costs for students and maintain the university’s mission to be an “open and accessible” institution of higher learning. When I considered how much of the textbook that I was asking students to buy we actually used in class, I couldn’t justify the cost any more, and I had no desire to use more of the textbook within my course structure. The textbook covers far more academic genres than we had time to adequately discuss, let alone ask the students to write, and so much of the rest of the book covered additional topics that we just couldn’t review at the depth that they covered it. As such, I decided to switch to OER materials. However, when I looked at the content that The Art of Academic Writing covered alongside the content that my students wouldn’t be getting from the Norton text any more, I noted that they wouldn’t have much explicit discussion of the different genres of essay that they’d need to write. That’s when I decided to write the materials that my students would need to fill in those gaps. As I was writing the book, I attended a presentation at our university’s Teaching & Learning Conference. One of my colleagues was presenting about some research she was doing in her doctoral program related to dyslexia. She noted that listening to an audio recording of a text while reading it can help students with dyslexia process the text better. I realized that I could also produce an audiobook version of the textbook I had written

Student feedback about using OER: 

Here are some selected pieces of feedback on the textbook I wrote. First, the suggestions for improvement: “On thing that I feel like can be improved is to add more a more detailed description and add more audio recordings.” “Some things that it could improve on is make it more entertaining.” Next, some praise the students provided, including some comments specifically about the recorded audio: “The whole thing is helpful for me, I don't show up to class all that much so when I start to work on my essay, I'm not sure what I'm doing but the guide tells me everything I need to know about that essay section.” “This textbook clearly helps me understand the rules of the essay formats and helped me with my essays and that I am writing in that format correctly.” “I find the textbook to be very helpful and there is always at least one line in it that makes me laugh and that makes it fun to read.” “I like it because it's short and gets straight to the point. Even though it's short it provides good information on what we are going over in that week and it has helped me understand what to expect when writing certain types of essays. I like the course text book and I don't think there's anything to be improved.” “I feel like for me the textbook is nice since it explains each of the writings that we are doing. I think that it is helpful to be able to listen to the audio. I tend to not get the main idea out the the textbook when I have to read it on my own.” “I find it helpful when the text have an audio that way I can read along.” “in looking at the student guide to the essay I really enjoyed the fact that there was a section for each type of essay. the thing I found most helpful it lays out each topic like so, what is a profile and excellent suggestions on how you could accomplish a particular essay. I honestly don't think that there's anything I would like to see improved.” “I find the textbook very helpful I always have the tab open when I am writing I find it most helpful when I am at home writing my question is always answered when I go back and read it. I also it find it helpful that there are different sections so it makes it easy to find what I am looking for.” “I think that it was written good and I liked how you split it up for the different essays. I also liked how you made it easy for the reader to go to the specific section they need if that makes sense. Like there is a common mistakes page, there is examples, etc.” “I love the audio version. I listen to it whenever there is a audio option. I find that the audio version helps me to better understand what is in the textbook because I have a hard time reading and remembering information.” “I find the audio files to be very useful. As a busy mom of six kids I play the audio while I'm doing chores at home, and play them more than once to make sure that I understand the concept.” “I ALWAYS listen to it. It makes it easier to understand what I read because sometimes I read something to myself and then I try to reread it because I didn't understand the first time. Plus its annoying having to take my phone out, pull up the essays, slowly highlight the whole thing and then finally listen to my phone read it to me. Sometimes I miss click and highlight everything slowly again so thank you, I makes my life easier.” “I've listened a couple of times when driving to class or when I'm doing something around the house. Helps me feel more efficient then sitting down and rereading everything every 5 seconds.” 

Instructor Name: Rik Andes

Rik has been teaching English since 2002. While most of his time has been spent helping speakers of other languages improve their English proficiency, he has recently focused his attention on first-semester academic writing.