Open Solutions: Creating an OER Writing Lab

Abstract

As online learning continues to expand, new avenues are being identified to support graduate learners in this environment. Regent University, a private institution located in the southeastern region of the United States, investigated Open Educational Resources (OER) options for providing asynchronous learning experiences to master key competencies, such as writing. After evaluating the OER market and networking with state and national level OER library leadership, these educators sought to build an OER alternative to Pearson's MyWritingLab that would serve the needs of their developmental writing online graduate students. A small team of librarians and professors took steps to integrate this experience into the university's UNIV 500: Foundations of Graduate Success course, evaluate its effectiveness, and create multimodal options for supporting this open learning opportunity.

Students’ perception toward the use of open educational resources to improve writing skills

“…Previous studies have explored the use of OER to support the students' writing skills. The advantages of applying OER in a writing class include 1) It provides asynchronous learning experiences to master key competencies that could serve the needs of students' writing development while receiving immediate feedback (Yaeger et al, 2021), 2) It could be used as additional materials, prescribed textbooks, or exclusive educational materials at the institutions, and 3) It could enhance the project writing classroom successfully (Vengadasalam, 2020). Based on the usefulness of OER for language learning, especially in improving writing skills, more support from the other stakeholders is needed to use OER effectively in education.…”