Presentation by Pamini Thangarajah, Associate Professor, Mount Royal University Removing financial barriers to undergraduate education is crucial, and the creation of open educational resources (OER) will directly help. And not only would the resources developed benefit the students as they are taking the class, but also by making the material open, it could be used by other faculty and students, not only at your institution but beyond. In an appreciation of my financially unburden educational experience, I have explored what I can do to help the students to access the required learning materials. There is no open text(s) available that can be used for this course. To this end, I have created the resources in an open educational environment. In this session, I will be walking you through my experience of creating open educational resources for a mathematics course at the Mount Royal University, Calgary. Festival of Learning 2018 - May 28 – 30 at the Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront in Vancouver, B.C.

1. An adventure into creation
of OER: A STEM wiki
project
Pamini Thangarajah, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Mathematics and Computing
Mount Royal University
Festival of Learning 2018, BC Campus
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2. What is OER
Open Educational Resources (OERs) are free and
openly licensed educational materials that can be
used for teaching, learning, research, and other
purposes.
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3. Why use OER?
To reduce the financial barriers of higher
education
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4. HOW?
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5. Contributing/
Adopting
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6. Choose Course(s): MATH 1150
Mathematical Reasoning & MATH 2150
Higher Arithmetic
• designed, and developed
Curriculum for these courses in
2012.
• Teaching these courses Annually,
since 2013-2014.
Festival of Learning 2018, BC Campus
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7. Contribute or Adopt?
• http://libguides.kpu.ca/opentextbooks/b
ccampus
• http://pitt.libguides.com/openeducation/
biglist
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8. My Contribution to OER Journey
• Choose the medium: I gained access to the
STEM WIKI site, LIBRE TEXTS, with the help from
a faculty member.
• Grant: Received Provost's Teaching & Learning
Enhancement Grants in 2017. (The grant gave me
an opportunity to hire and mentor undergraduate
research assistants)
Festival of Learning 2018, BC Campus
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9. Libre Texts- A STEMWiki Project
https://math.libretexts.org/LibreTexts/Mount_R
oyal_University
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10. The care needed for the
developing material and
sustain the material
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15. how to engage
students,
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16. Teaching Methods
●Traditional lecture style
●Active learning Strategies
Li, Y., Zhao, D., Huang, R., & Ma, Y. (2008). Mathematical preparation of elementary teachers in
China: Changes and issues. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 11, 417–430.
Active Learning in Mathematics, Part I: The Challenge of Defining Active Learning - See more at:
http://blogs.ams.org/matheducation/2015/09/10/active-learning-in-mathematics-part-i-the-challenge-
of-defining-active-learning/#sthash.YytwOprS.dpuf
Festival of Learning 2018, BC Campus
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17. The impact
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18. Work in progress
• Modifying and creating a pdf of the
Lecture notes.
• Reviewing and editing the videos.
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19. Mentoring Undergraduate Teaching/
Research Assistants
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20. how to prepare whatever
else may be required to run
a course
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21. Using google for assignments21
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1otgz0O3yETe_Ara2uRHP9O48aT9mta
hptG0ODOaIpBw/edit?usp=sharing

22. Videos
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Festival of Learning 2018, BC Campus

23. Recognition
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24. Recognition
• “Open Education Champion Award”,
in recognition of outstanding contribution
through enrichment, endeavor, and
excellence within SAMRU, The University
and the Community, Conferred by Student
Association of Mount Royal University
(SAMRU).
Festival of Learning 2018, BC Campus
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25. What next:
Next Generation Digital
learning Resources for
Calculus.
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26. Thank you!
Any questions or any Comments?
Email: pthangarajah@mtroyal.ca
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