ENGL 166 Publishing and Editing

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID:  ENGL 166
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in an English course for undergraduate or graduate students by Venita Blackburn at Fresno State. The open textbook provides access to a variety of materials, including articles and videos. The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was to keep costs low for students and create a more dynamic course. Most students access the open textbook in the Canvas LMS.

Course Title and Number - ENGL 166 Publishing and Editing 
Brief Description of course highlights:  Undergraduate seminar focused on supervised project-based editorial work with online and/or print literary publications.

Student population: English majors are the primary students with an occasional outlier. Creative writing, English literature and English studies students dominate the course.

Learning or student outcomes: 

• Develop individual and collective projects in literary arts promotion, programming, and marketing (i.e. creation of a database, planning a fundraiser, launch event, etc.).
• Make independent and collaborative decisions about content for a high-quality literary magazine.
• Apply a working understanding of their role as a Literary Citizen and a member of local arts communities to specific needs
• Identify new opportunities for partnerships and work to establish connections with other local writers and artists.

Key challenges faced and how resolved: Managing time for students to review and evaluate all the of materials in order to meet the publication deadline for the journal the course must produce is the most challenging element. Every semester is a little different because the students are always a little different in their time management skills as well as the unpredictable variables that occur with the coordinators that exist outside of the course but are integral to the final publication. Careful monitoring and troubleshooting throughout the critical periods really help prevent total derailing of the course structure.

Syllabus and/or Sample assignment from the course or the adoption:  ENGL 166 Syllabus Blackburn  

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: Publishing and Editing 

Brief Description:  Several articles, videos and Canvas based activities are used as a textbook replacement.

Please provide a link to the resource  
https://fresnostate.instructure.com/courses/103531/users

Authors: Instructor is Venita Blackburn

Student access:  The learning management system is Canvas and they will use that to access links to a variety of databases as well as uploaded course materials and other platforms such as YouTube. 

Supplemental resources:   Video conversations featuring the instructor and industry professionals.  Also, modules will include activities for both individual completion and group work that can require research or access to the necessary resources linked or uploaded.

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  $30

License*: All material used is open.

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Please provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost. I want a more user friendly course as well as cost saving for students.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course?  Gathered a lot of my own resources over the years and have now started browsing OER sites for additional resources.

Sharing Best Practices:  I am enjoying the database of OER resources. I thought there were fewer options because of copyrighted material.

Describe any challenges you experienced, and lessons learned. The process has been smooth. Sometimes, I run into paywalls for subscriptions that the library does not have access to. 

Instructor Name - Venita Blackburn
I am an English professor at Fresno State University. 

Please provide a link to your university page.
https://directory.fresnostate.edu/users/dept/616  

Please describe the courses/course numbers that you teach.  I teach undergraduate creative writing courses including beginner and intermediate fiction, graduate level fiction workshops, form and theory, special topics, publishing and editing, professional development seminars and multi-genre craft courses.

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.  I believe in centering the student’s in their educational journey, meaning acknowledgment of their learning styles and the need to evaluate progress through reflection, collaboration and communication in both verbal and written formats. I am an author of three books of fiction