Tiffany Earley-Spadoni [Champion of Open – History]

Describe your open educational resources and/or practices:

I created my own STARS digital repository of Open Educational Resources for the ASH3200 Ancient Near East Societies course, in collaboration with Lee Dotson in the UCF library. In part, my research focuses on how digital technologies are transforming the fields of history and archaeology. So, I used my familiarity as a researcher with exemplary digital projects to identify open educational resources that could be used by specialists like me to replace and supplement traditional textbooks. This has enabled me to accomplish a long-held goal of making every class that I teach cost-free for students.

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

Students have been wowed by the wealth of multimedia and virtual experiences that have supplemented traditional readings on the topics. It is one thing to read about the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, but quite another to experience an immersive VR reconstruction of the famed monument.

What is one piece of advice for other faculty interested in OER/P?

While creating an OER collection was no small investment of my time, it has paid off in the students’ perception of the course and their learning outcomes. The OER library has also been accessed thousands of times so it’s incredibly rewarding to know that my colleagues are using this resource in their own classes and for research.

Related Resources 

• STARS Digital Repository for ASH3200 course: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/ancientneareast/?fbclid=IwAR2CnNthomOX9Htz-8dpMWdvUjH0RQlL6Ggt3L8VukHHfrlKyV74jOibpbs