Panel Discussion: Provost's Open Educational Resource (OER) Fellows

Presenter Information

Billie Franchini, University at Albany, State University of New YorkFollow
Lenore Horowitz, University at Albany, State University of New YorkFollow
Marcus Adams, University at Albany, State University of New YorkFollow
Jeremy Feldblyum, University at Albany, State University of New YorkFollow
Matthew Ingram, Univeristy at Albany, State University of New YorkFollow

Document Type

Event

Location

Standish Room, Science Library

Start Date

25-10-2018 10:00 AM

Description

While the adoption of open educational resources (OERs) in the undergraduate curriculum has the evident benefit of reducing cost to the student, thinking deeply about OER adoption reveals numerous questions: can OERs match the quality of traditional textbooks and other commercial educational resources? Are there problems associated with the current textbook landscape that OERs can solve? And how easily can OERs be integrated into classrooms with established modes of instruction? Each of the Provost’s OER Fellows will discuss briefly some of the most important conclusions from the current OER research literature and discuss these in the context of SUNY Albany and its students. They will be sharing their experiences adopting and adapting OER materials for courses in the humanities and the sciences.

Comments

Billie Bennett Franchini’s efforts in educational development focus on fostering meaningful student engagement through evidence-based active learning practices including Team-Based Learning (TBL). She also works with faculty and graduate students in broader career development, including documentation of teaching and professional practice; building leadership skills; and productively integrating research, teaching, and service. She has over twenty years of teaching experience and has worked in faculty development for eleven years. She holds a Ph.D. in English Literature and an M.Ed. in English Education from the University of Georgia.

Marcus Adams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University at Albany, SUNY. His research is focused in the history of 17th century philosophy and science. He has used OER textbooks and other open teaching materials in both online and face-to-face settings, from introductory courses such as Critical Thinking and Introduction to Logic to courses with historical, text-focused approaches such as 17th and 18th Century Philosophy.

Jeremy Feldblyum (pronounced FELD-bloom) has been fascinated by science since the age of 10, when he picked up Richard Feynman's physics primer Six Easy Pieces. After his first high school research experience at The Institute for Genomic Research (now the J. Craig Venter Institute), Feldblyum went to the University of Maryland where he studied both chemistry and piano performance. Pursuing a Ph.D. with Adam Matzger and in collaboration with David Gidley at the University of Michigan, Feldblyum studied metal-organic framework properties using positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS). An interest in electronic materials took him to the Zhenan Bao group at Stanford, where he developed synthesis and processing methods for 2D network semiconductors. As an assistant professor at SUNY Albany, his research focused on developing new methods to synthesize, characterize, and utilize functional coordination materials for diverse applications in electronics, separations, and catalysis. As an educator, Feldblyum is in charge of teaching thermodynamics and polymer chemistry, and has a strong interest in developing comprehensive open textbooks for these and other more specialized topics in chemistry.

Lenore Horowitz is full-time faculty member teaching in the undergraduate Informatics program at UAlbany. She has been teaching undergraduate students for more than 25 years in the computer science/information science discipline concentrating on programming and database design and development. Her teaching pedagogies focus on student-centered teaching both online and in blended learning environments.

In addition to teaching she has been involved in many UAlbany initiatives including a Provost’s OER Fellowship and a Provost's Online Teaching and Learning Teach22 Design Coach and is presently the Provost’s OER University’s Liaison. She is a longtime member of the SUNY FACT2 Council which is an advisory body to the SUNY Provost, advocating and acting as a resource for University stakeholders at the nexus of technology, pedagogy and research.

Matthew C. Ingram's research examines justice sector reforms, judicial behavior, and violence in Latin America.

Holding a law degree (2006) and a PhD in political science (2009) from the University of New Mexico, Ingram studies the political origins of institutional change and judicial behavior in the region's justice systems, focusing on sub-national courts in Brazil and Mexico. He draws also on a family history in Mexico (dual citizen, U.S. and Mexico), extensive fieldwork in Latin America, and seven years of professional experience in law enforcement in California. Ingram's academic work has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes. His book, Crafting Courts in New Democracies: The Politics of Subnational Judicial Reform in Brazil and Mexico (Cambridge University Press, 2016), examines the causal role of ideas in shaping local court reforms in Latin America's two largest democracies and markets. The book combines statistical analysis and in-depth qualitative work, drawing on two years of fieldwork and more than 100 interviews with judges and other legal professionals.

Ingram's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Fulbright Commission.

Prior to arriving at Rockefeller, Ingram held post-doctoral fellowships at the UC San Diego's Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies (2009-2010) and Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute (2011-2012). He was also an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth (2010-2011). In 2012-2013, Ingram will offer courses in Comparative Judicial Politics, Comparative Criminal Procedure, and Latin American Politics. Prof. Ingram, born and raised in Mexico, speaks English, Spanish, and Portuguese.