Student Voice in Textbook Evaluation: Comparing OpStudent Voice in Textbook Evaluation: Comparing Open and Restricted Textbooksen and Restricted Textbooks
Abstract:Advocates for student voice in higher education believe students should have the right and power to engage in much of the decision-making traditionally dominated by instructors or administrators. This qualitative study examines the role of student voice in the evaluation of textbook quality. Evaluators included two graduate students enrolled in a project management course at a university in the western U.S. and their instructor. Evaluators used their own student-created metric to analyze the comparative qualit… Show more
“…Notably, some of the most-used and highest-quality OER in EdTech Books were authored by students or were published without peer review. This trend suggests the need to rethink peer reviews as a sole indicator of quality (Woodward et al, 2017;Kimmons, 2015), potentially including triangulation of data points, such as quality assurance ratings, citations and dissemination rates, times remixed, accessibility, usefulness, and prestige of adopting organizations.…”
Section: What Were Trends In Edtech Open Educational Resources (Oer) ...mentioning
“…Notably, some of the most-used and highest-quality OER in EdTech Books were authored by students or were published without peer review. This trend suggests the need to rethink peer reviews as a sole indicator of quality (Woodward et al, 2017;Kimmons, 2015), potentially including triangulation of data points, such as quality assurance ratings, citations and dissemination rates, times remixed, accessibility, usefulness, and prestige of adopting organizations.…”
Section: What Were Trends In Edtech Open Educational Resources (Oer) ...mentioning
“…A fixed definition of 'student voice' is difficult to identify in literature, and encompasses positive and negative aspects in educational research and practice (Cook-Sather 2006). However, learner voice research reflects a move from "research on students to research with students" (Woodward et al 2017). This is a "dialogic alternative" of "speaking with rather than speaking for" students in educational "research, planning, and reform" (Fielding 2004).…”
Section: Why Is Learner Voice Important?mentioning
This paper provides insight into senior secondary learners’ views on Islamic Studies (IS) in three large Australian Islamic schools. This study offers a ‘dialogic alternative’ of ‘speaking with’ rather than ‘speaking for’ learners in Islamic educational research, planning, and renewal within K-12 Islamic schools. The study privileges learners’ voice and enables an insight to their experience with one of the most important features of Islamic schools—Islamic Studies. Using phenomenology as a methodological framework, learner voice was elicited through focus groups where 75 learners (years 10, 11, and 12) provided information describing their experience with Islamic Studies. Thematic content analysis of the textual data suggests that learners’ dissatisfaction far outweighs their satisfaction with Islamic Studies. The findings of this paper can benefit Islamic schools in Australia and other Western contexts.
“…Multiauthored options ranked higher, and texts with examples were seen as more beneficial for distance learners. 27 Meinke believes unless discrete parts of the development process are identified, it is not useful to signal others to contribute to a project. 28 An example of an OER production workflow containing usability considerations is the Content, Openness, Reuse & Repurpose, and Evidence (CORRE) framework by the University of Leicester (see fig.…”
As library publishers and open education programs grow, it is imperative that we integrate practices in our workflows that prioritize and include end users. Although there is information available on best practices for user testing and accessibility compliance, more can be done to give insight into the library publishing context. This study examines the user and accessibility testing workflow during the modification of an existing open textbook using Pressbooks at Texas Tech University.
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