Digital Course Content Project

UI Libraries and the Office of Teaching, Learning, & Technology

A collaboration between the UI Library and the Office of Teaching, Learning, & Technology

Executive Sponsor: Jean Florman, Director, Center for Teaching

Project Leads: Ericka Raber, UI Libraries and Steve Silva, OTLT

Proposal:

Engage faculty through an open application process to use University licensed, faculty created or open educational digital course content, especially primary source material in University of Iowa undergraduate and graduate courses in collaboration with the Office of Teaching, Learning, & Technology and UI Library.

Selected projects will support excellence in student learning and reduce student material costs through pedagogically appropriate use of these materials.

Up to 6 faculty will be chosen in Fall 2014 with courses to be offered in Spring 2015.

Participating faculty and instructors will receive support throughout the process from the Office of Teaching, Learning, & Technology and UI Library staffs to assist with tasks such as locating, creating and integrating new digital content, training, course design, project management, delivery and assessment.

Goals & Objectives:

Instructors will utilize UI Libraries digital content, open source or faculty created materials to replace significant portions of course content.

  • Considerably reduce student material cost by transferring a substantial portion of the course content from traditional materials (e.g. textbook, course packs, etc.) to digital sources (e.g. journal articles, eBooks, video, etc.) licensed by the University of Iowa, open educational resources or faculty created material.
  • Expand the use of primary source material in course content through the above.
  • Exploring and developing support processes, collaborative structures and workflows for ongoing and expanded use of University licensed digital content, open educational resources or faculty created material in UI courses.
  • Explore and develop strategies for long-term use and establish repository for digital course content created during project.

Call for Application:

Announcement of Digital Course Content Project

The Office of Teaching, Learning, & Technology and the UI Libraries seek faculty applications for projects that promote excellence in student learning and reduce student material costs through the use of University licensed digital materials, open educational resources or faculty created materials as replacements for paid student course materials in University courses.

Proposals are due by September 12, 2014. Projects may begin upon selectionand are to be completed by May 2015.

Purpose:

Soaring textbook prices have placed a significant financial burden on our students, forcing some to select classes based on the price of course materials or simply forgo purchasing required texts. In addition, textbook publishers and vendors have increasingly pressured on faculty to make long-term commitments to proprietary digital material whose future cost to students and educational impact is unknown.

Use of open educational resources, university library licensed and faculty created digital course material is growing nationwide and this project seeks to engage UI faculty in this emerging approach to course material and explore this avenue as a viable alternative to paid publisher content.

Additionally, this project seeks to encourage use of primary source materials and potentially foster stronger student engagement with the Libraries research material.

Proposals are welcome from all instructional program areas. Proposals are encouraged from individuals or faculty teams.

The project is open to faculty and instructors teaching both graduate and/or undergraduate courses. On campus and online courses are eligible.

Participants will receive:

  • Assistance from UI Libraries staff with resource discovery, copyright implications, and fair use options.
  • Assistance from the Office of Teaching, Learning, & Technology staff with course design, digital format consulting, and tools for delivering digital course material.
  • A community of other interested instructors developed through organized activities and related events.

Participants will:

  • Implement the DCC project in a course by Spring 2015
  • Evaluate impact on students (This may include assessments during the semester it is used, testing with a small group of students before the semester in which it's used, etc.)
  • Participate in pilot assessment research with Office of Teaching, Learning, & Technology assessment staff

Up to 6 projects will be selected, based on the following criteria:

  • Cost savings to UI students (measured in part by size of class, number of sections, cost of existing course materials, etc.).
  • Pedagogical value; learning enhancements directly related to use of new material
  • Use of primary source material in course

How to apply:

  • Deadline for application: September 12, 2014
  • For more information about this project (including examples of similar uses of digital course materials) as well as other University sponsored e-text pilots, please visit:
  • Contact f you have questions or need advice before completing an application.
  • Applicationlink