Inside Higher Ed sponsored a webinar on Open Educational Resources (OER) in April: “The Case for Open Educational Resources and Open Policies.” The presenter, Dr. Cable Green, Director of Global Learning at Creative Commons, included links to various clearinghouse collections and OER sites, which you can explore to learn more about what is available. As some examples of the kind of resources included in the webinar, here are some links Green shared, which I tweeted out during the event:

• Use “Find OER” to find all the varied OER collections: open4us.org/find-oer/ 
• Free to use courses at opencourselibrary.org
• Open K12 texts for English language arts: ck12.org/english/ 
• International consortium of OER with resources for texts, courses: oeconsortium.org 
• Here’s an open English 101 course via Open Course Library: opencourselibrary.org/engl-101/ 
• OpenStax College offers a series of CC texts on intro topics (stats, econ, psych, etc)

Here are some example open resources that are designed for professional communications:

• Style for Students Online: Effective Technical Writing in the Information Age by Joe Schall
• Technical Report Writing by Carol A. Vidoli, NASA
• Online Technical Writing by David A.McMurrey
• Business Communication for Success by Scott McLean

As you look at open textbooks, you will notice some drawbacks. Open textbooks may not be as carefully edited as the alternatives from academic publishers. You may notice that features you take for granted are missing, like an index, a full table of contents, or ancillary materials to use with the text. If you are thinking of choosing an open textbook, think carefully about the amount of work that you and students will need to put into using the book.

If you are considering open resources for your classes, I suggest you proceed with caution. If you don’t have time to create any additional resources you need to use the text, open textbooks may not be the best choice. Additionally, be sure that the production quality is high enough for the course. It’s hard to insist that student work be error free if the textbook isn’t. Finally, if you are interested in open resources but worried about whether the text will work, you might begin by using some supplemental material alongside a text from an academic publisher.

Bottom line: Open textbooks do offer some significant advantages (in particular, the free pricetag), but if you are new to teaching a professional writing course, you may be better off choosing a text by an established academic publisher to ensure you have the support you need while you are developing your assignments and classroom activities.

[Photo: Open Textbook Summit 2014 Day 1 by BCcampus_News, on Flickr]

Times have changed, but it’s still possible to find a happy ending during that first week. You just have to keep the realities of the academic system in mind. With the current system at Virginia Tech, most business and technical writing classes are full before the first day of class. You might think that means that you can send out an email with details on the syllabus and book before the first session so that everyone is ready to go on the first day. Unfortunately, that system only works in fairy tales.

First Week Challenges
Because of the way course request works, your class roster isn’t set until at least the last day to add. Up until that date, someone may drop your course and a new student may add. During the fall and spring terms, that period is a week. During the summer and winter sessions, it’s three days. This enrollment system means that you may have a new student who will not have seen the syllabus or had the opportunity to purchase the textbook as late as eight days into the term during the fall and spring terms and as late as four days into the term during summer and winter sessions.

Even if the enrollment doesn’t change, a few students seem to always have problems getting the books. The bookstore may run out. Their financial aid hasn’t come through. They have to wait until pay day. They have to wait for Amazon shipments. So even if you have the same students you started with in the first day of class, you have to allow up to a week for them to have the textbook.

My Solutions
I have found that to be fair to everyone I either have to delay all deadlines or allow for generous make-ups. Since I hate keeping track of the 1001 reasons and students who need extensions, I use these guidelines to set up deadlines and the course work during the first week:

• I email the syllabus and textbook information before the first class; however, I think of it as a way to help students get ahead, not a pre-class to-do list.
• I take attendance beginning on the first day of class, but I don’t count absences against students until they are enrolled in the class.
• I collect in-class work or quizzes during the first week, but accept that work through the end of the second week of classes. After that, I tighten the due dates.
• I strongly encourage students not to procrastinate if they have the ability to complete the work that first week. Most of them will submit their work prior to that last day, which helps with my workload.
• I assign readings during the first week, but focus on material that will likely be review, like information on process-based writing and the rhetorical considerations of audience and purpose.
• I supplement with online materials that match the textbook readings to help any students who have trouble acquiring the textbook. I do not necessarily provide such supplements after that first week.
• I begin the first major writing project during the first week, but I choose a project that does not rely on the textbook so that everyone can begin the project. Recently, I have been using a Professional Bio Assignment.

I have found that any other system results in heartbreak, either for students or me. From my perspective, these guidelines ultimately save me time and energy. I tried making work due quickly during the winter session because of the very short time allotted for the course, but I had a student add on the last day to add the course, making him three days behind. I had to rearrange all the due dates in the system to give him time to complete the quizzes and other work. Now I set up the course so that these problems don’t come. Students are happier, and so am I. Maybe not happily-ever-after happy, but at least I’m not the evil villain.

[Photo: Berry O'Kelly School, Early 1900s by Universal Pops, on Flickr]

All students, faculty, and staff at Virginia Tech has full, free access to the tutorials on the lynda.com site. Just login with your PID and password, and choose a topic from the “Browse the library” link at the top or search for a topic. lynda.com includes a full transcript of the videos (which helps take care of accessibility). Click in the transcript or the course outline to move around in the videos. Do preview the videos to make sure that will work for you.

As an example of how I use the videos, in one of my first posts in the course, I give students this advice:

If you have never used Google Drive before, you can learn more by watching relevant portions of Google Drive Essential Training with Jess Stratton. (Login required; lynda.com resources are free to VT students.)

The link gives them very complete documentation for the site, and I put the responsibility on learning how to use the tool on students. If questions about a specific capability do come up, I give students to URL to the particular section of the lynda.com video that covers the answer. In other words, I don’t explain the tool myself. I point them to the documentation.

There are also videos on the site that can help with specific kinds of writing. In particular, there are several videos that can help students with job application materials:

• Job Hunting Online with Jolie Miller
• Up and Running with LinkedIn with Brad Batesole
• Git Essential Training with Kevin Skoglund
• Job Search Strategies with Valerie Sutton
• Designing a Resume with Steve Harris
• Creating an Effective Resume with Mariann Siegert