Congratulations to the four recipients of this year’s SCoer! Faculty Grant. They will learn how to use freely accessible resources in their classrooms and, in the process, save their students a significant sum of money. The winners are Marianne Bickle, Department of Retailing and Interdisciplinary Studies; David Hudgens, Department of International Business and International Activities; Rebecca Janzen, Department of Language, Literature and Cultures; and Jayanth Jayaram, Department of Management Science.
Now in its fourth year, the SCoer! Faculty Grant encourages the classroom use of Open Educational Resources (OER) – teaching, learning and research resources that are freely available to students. The grant is sponsored by the University of South Carolina Libraries.
To participate in the program, the winning faculty members will attend a one-hour workshop hosted by the University Libraries that will help them identify OER materials for their courses. They then will commit to switching from using a traditional textbook to an OER or library-licensed resource in one of their classes. Each winner receives a certificate and a $500 grant.
Meet this year’s winners:
Marianne Bickle
Professor
Director of Interdisciplinary Studies and Online Learning
Department of Retailing and Interdisciplinary Studies
College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management
“The two fashion history courses I teach are huge (taught online) and taught throughout the year, including summer. It doesn't have a pre-requisite, so both courses are very popular across campus. The issue is that the book is SO expensive. Yes, the images are pretty, but . . . After the SCOER seminar, I think I’ll be able to find really good Open Educational Resources for both courses.”
David Hudgens
Clinical Assistant Professor
Regional Director for Asia
Department of International Business and International Activities
Darla Moore School of Business
“When I began to teach the SCHC 374 course on Social Innovation, the course participants and I addressed subjects around access to information and knowledge that can benefit the public across the various sectors of society. I realized that this course should have no costs associated with the course materials and related readings. This is a matter of practice and principle in the subject of social innovation. So, I am prepared to adapt this approach for virtually all of my course offerings.”
Rebecca Janzen
Assistant Professor
Language, Literature and Cultures
College of Arts and Sciences
“I am interested in Open Educational Resources because they allow me to be creative with my course planning. I can select portions of a wide range of texts, from different time periods, to give my students a historical background for our class material and the most up-to-date scholarship. It also means that I can ensure that all of my students can access these resources regardless of income levels and combination of scholarships, loans, work-study or outside employment.”
Jayanth Jayaram
Professor
Moore Research Fellow
Department of Management Science
Darla Moore School of Business
“I want students to access top notch and current quality materials at low cost. Textbooks are outdated very soon, so I have started using coursepacks with articles that have no copyright fees.”
The SCoer! Grant recipients are selected by Student Government representatives and members of the University Libraries’ Scholarly Communications Committee.
“The selection committee looks closely at three determining factors: applicants who showed a strong desire to learn the process of finding and using online educational resources, the potential for long-term financial savings for students, and the availability of OER materials on the subject taught,” said Amie Freeman, Assistant Interlibrary Loan Librarian at University Libraries and Chair of the Libraries’ Scholarly Communications Committee. “These winners have shown great enthusiasm for using OER in their courses, and we congratulate them.”