Annabelle Conroy [Champion of Open – Political Science]

Describe your open educational resources and/or practices:

Since 2015, I have not asked students to purchase textbooks. I use open educational resources in these courses: (1) POS2041 American National Government, (2) POS4074 Latino Politics, (3) INR4085 Women, Gender, and Globalization, and (4) INR4076 Global Drug Policy – and any other course I teach.

Describe the impact open educational resources and/or practices has had on your teaching and/or students’ learning:

OER has had a significant impact on my students for several reasons:

1. Saves money
2. Provides access to a wider variety of sources of information
3. Enables students to access materials from anywhere (this was particularly important during the Spring 2020 term when many students were displaced or were left without access to dorm rooms or apartments where they had left their materials)
4. Provides more up-to-date material since these are usually more recent and/or easier to update
   What is one piece of advice for other faculty interested in OER/P?
   OER can take many forms so be open to new sources, and be open to combining them into your own by using tools such as Pressbooks.

Related Resources

• OpenStax American Government 2e: https://openstax.org/details/books/american-government-2e