Creating a more inclusive course

Carol Hess, professor and Chair, Department of Dance, shared, “Over the past several years, Ms. Vasbinder has been transforming her Dance History I course to contain more inclusive, de-colonized content, a wider array of assessment modalities, and embodied experiences for the students. Her OER course shares an approach to the teaching of Dance History that will be a valuable resource for both instructors and students.”

Hess was a project team member on the M.O.S.T. Faculty Grant supporting Vasbinder’s work. Other team members were Erin Durham Wright, Reference & Instruction Librarian; Josh Abrams, Instructional Design Specialist, Instructional Technology; and Susan Biro, Manager, Online Learning, Instructional Technology. 

“The process of creating this resource has been an amazing collaboration renewing my joy of teaching and exploring the ever expanding ways to share and learn,” says Vasbinder. “My hope is that this OER course will continue to be updated and expanded and grow to include modules from other dance history scholars as we continue to receive feedback from student and scholar adopters of this work.” She is excited to learn how the course is adopted and adapted by others in the field.

Dance History: Cultural and Classical Forms is now available. Potential adopters and adapters will be able to find the course in the M.O.S.T. Commons, OER Commons, and the DELRdi (Dance Education Literature and Research descriptive index). 

M.O.S.T. Initiative expands OER access

The Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) initiative supports efforts to increase faculty access, affordability, and achievement for students at Maryland’s postsecondary institutions through the incorporation of open educational resources (OER) into teaching practice. 

From spring 2014 to fall 2023, 210 courses at 29 institutions across Maryland have switched to OER, saving students more than $22 million in cumulative textbook costs. Since spring 2014, M.O.S.T. has impacted more than 160,000 students, who saved an average of $137 per course.