Katy and Nancy will describe how they transitioned their Spanish curriculum away from expensive textbooks to open educational resources (OERs). They'll also discuss the ways that flipped learning strategies enable them to make their in-class sessions more active and engaging. See below for background on how they came to these projects.

At an OER Roundtable hosted by CETCI (February 15, 2022), it was reported that students identified the cost of commercial textbooks as a significant barrier to their learning, with 88% of Pacific University students considering not buying required textbooks for their courses (2013, UGSS). Even more compelling were the items students chose to forgo in order to afford their textbooks, including medication, healthful meals, doing laundry and taking part in travel and other college experiences (Kouichi Saito, Undergraduate Student Senate President, 2022). Saito went on to note that students perceived OER to improve their interest and engagement and reduce stress significantly, which allowed them to live healthier, more secure lives and to learn better (Saito 2022). The takeaway was: if you can replicate what your commercial textbook does with OER, what are you waiting for? We heard you, and we responded with two OER projects for lower-division courses in Spanish.

Katy’s project was to research and adapt an existing introductory OER Spanish textbook as well as create supplemental learning tools for the lower division Spanish Language & Culture sequence (SPAN 101, 102 & 201) in order to eliminate course-related expenses for students, many of whom complete the core language requirement in Spanish. This new OER textbook provides equitable access to a high-quality and flexible curriculum that is inclusive of student identities and experiences.
 

Inspired by Katy, Nancy authored an OER textbook for Span 202, which is the second semester of intermediate Spanish here at Pacific. This project hoped to solve several problems: 1) to reduce costs for our students who study lower-division Spanish at Pacific; 2) to diversify the cultural elements taught in our language classrooms; 3) to create a textbook that encouraged student connections and a sense of belonging  to each other as classmates, to Pacific’s campus and to the local community.