Get to Know the New, Upcoming Illinois SCOERs OER, Program 1

Dr. Diana Zaleski from the University of Illinois Springfield speaks about her project entitled The Psychology of Exceptional Children which is an open educational resource (OER) textbook that will be used in undergraduate exceptional child courses. To date, there are no OER textbooks dealing with issues concerning the development, psychology, or education of children with exceptionalities. The term exceptional children refer to both disabilities and giftedness, as well as children who are at-risk for developmental delays. Ancillary materials include reflection questions and application activities will be developed for each chapter along with a special assignment that engages students in the development of assistive devices and adaptive equipment for children with disabilities using 3D printers.

Dr. Karen Vuckovic from the University of Illinois Chicago submitted a proposal for Advancing Open Educational ReSources and Visual Pedagogy for DIverRse StudEnts: ASPIRE. Through ASPIRE Dr. Vuckovic created Essentials of Pharmacology, an original open access text on the foundational principles of pharmacology for diverse nursing students using an innovative visual approach. The text focuses on core fundamental knowledge of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Pharmacology, a difficult, yet essential subject, demands integrating biology, physiology, pathology, genetics and chemistry (STEM) knowledge. The novel and intentional aspect of this OER is the emphasis on visualization (animation, video, and figures) to illustrate STEM-related pharmacologic knowledge. The ASPIRE project supports a creative pedagogy model of OER, integrating multicultural 3D visual content into existing evidence-based core courses, and filling the gaps in diverse educational curricula to advance an innovative model of integrated multicultural programming.