The Open Education
Consortium (OEC), a global network for open education, recently announced Adam Dastrup,
geosciences coordinator for Salt Lake Community College, won OEC’s prestigious
Open Geography award.
The Open Education
Awards for Excellence, presented each year at the Open Education Global
Conference, provide annual recognition to outstanding contributions in the Open
Education community. These awards recognize distinctive Open Educational
Resources, Open Projects & Initiatives, as well as exemplary leaders
in Open Education worldwide.
In 2014, Dastrup
started the Open Geography Education initiative as a way to provide educators
with OER textbooks to students. “The philosophy of the initiative is to provide
open resources, products and services to anybody interested in learning about
the earth, its places and the relationships between people and their
environments,” Dastrup says.
Currently, the OER
textbooks are being used at two- and four-year institutions across the United
States, and in over ten countries. Since the initiative began, students at SLCC
have saved over $5 million in textbook costs. To view the textbooks at Open
Geography Education, go to www.opengeography.org.
“A student’s
learning experience within a course, including the textbook, should be included
with student tuition and fees” says Dastrup. “That way, students are prepared
on the first day of class and not waiting or worrying how they are going to pay
for their textbooks.”
The OER textbooks
are mobile friendly and multi-modal, with embedded videos to enhance the
learning experience. The textbooks are continuously updated with current events
that bring life to the subject matter. “Most students are not only grateful
they do not have to pay for a textbook, but have stated they enjoy reading the
material because the mobility allows them to study and watch the embedded
videos on their smartphones,” Dastrup says. “The textbooks literally meet
students where they are at.”