Textbooks are typically the backbone of a college course. Students can’t keep up with the curriculum or reading assignments without the required textbook… at least until now.
Molly M. Sergi, Ph.D., lead faculty in history at Kent State University at Geauga, has received a $600 grant to learn and experiment with free Open Educational Resources (OERs) available online as an alternative to costly textbooks. As part of the process, she has discovered exciting primary and secondary sources of local history that her Ohio History (History 31061) students will be able to access next fall semester at no cost. This course attracts history majors and is a core class for early education majors, as well.
OERs remove a significant financial barrier while bringing students into a more interactive experience with historic news clippings, handwritten letters, vintage photographs and other resources that illustrate little-known historical events from Northeast Ohio’s not-so-distant past.
For instance, students will gain a fresh perspective on the impact of the Great Depression within the context of workers’ rights and Republic Steel in the Warren/Youngstown/Niles area with a focus on the violent and deadly Little Steel Strike of 1937. Dr. Sergi says that this strike was instrumental in shaping this region’s relationship between labor and big business/the steel industry, as well as its political climate. Reverberations of the Depression-era strike are still evident today.
Newly-discovered open resources Dr. Sergi has found will also deliver new insights regarding the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970; the unsolved Cleveland Torso Killings from the 1930s (involving Eliot Ness); local Underground Railroad historical sites and other significant local history landmarks and events.
Dr. Sergi is one of 29 faculty from more than 17 Ohio universities selected to undergo this open resource training through OhioLINK and Ohio State University. Nine faculty members from throughout the Kent system were chosen for the grant, but Dr. Sergi is the only history professor and also the only representative from Kent Geauga.
Previous to this exposure, Dr. Sergi says, “I didn’t even know these open resources existed! These links can make a huge difference for students because they won’t have to purchase textbooks. Instead, they can rely on the information in the links they can access for free. Let’s face it. Textbooks are so expensive, some students will delay purchasing or drop a class because they can’t afford the books. It’s costly, and for how long will they use it? …10-15 weeks, maybe. But then what? And costs might exceed $150 per semester to purchase books.”
On the other hand, Open Educational Resources not only create a cost-free option but also the opportunity to explore new sources of information that can breathe new life into curriculum design. “I love history of all sorts,” comments Dr. Sergi, who teaches US, world, minority, colonial, 19th-century America, and women's history.
“But history can get stale unless you’re excited about it and introduce new ideas to the course. This provides an opportunity to make much-needed changes. It will make a real difference.”