Browsing by Author "Neser, Laura"

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    Enabling Faculty Experiential Learning through Authoring Open Educational Resources
    Walz, Anita R.; Grey, Kindred; Hopkins, Erin A.; Orth, Donald J.; Neser, Laura (Virginia Tech, 2023-02-17)
    Virginia Tech faculty are increasingly engaging in creating, adapting, and sharing open educational resources, with 24 open textbooks or other substantive open educational resources published since program inception in 2016 (https://guides.lib.vt.edu/oer/grantees). Nationally, faculty exhibit motivation for engagement because of lack of relevant course materials, a desire for more control over the process, and cost reduction for students. This trend requires faculty attention to the complexities of writing for student learning rather than discipline-specific research formats, openness to learning new processes on publishing sharable, openly-licensed resources, and commitment to dedicating time on task. Throughout these processes, faculty expand their skill in time management and setting of reasonable writing goals, knowledge regarding copyright and Creative Commons licenses, development of accessibility features for readers with visual and/or print disabilities, assessment and incorporation of student and peer-reviewer requests, book publication processes, and attention to presentation and design elements that reinforce learning -- including figures, examples, self-assessment tools, learning objectives, and so on. Some faculty develop expertise in WordPress-based publishing software, such as Pressbooks. Others explore integration of non-traditional media such as podcasts, virtual reality, code-environments, embedded interactive graphs, and assessment tools such as gradebook-passback quizzing options. Such projects benefit from the expertise of a third-party project management team -- in our case from the University Libraries’ Open Education Initiative -- which has expertise with open educational resource publication processes, student and external peer-review management, software platform options, print-on-demand services, copyright and open licenses, and provides access to graphic design, copyediting, accessibility, and editorial services. Building on the process-related themes from a 2021 poster presented at CHEP, “Collaborating to Build, Adapt, and Evaluate Open Educational Resources (OER),” (http://hdl.handle.net/10919/101980) this moderated panel discussion explores faculty motivations for undertaking open educational resource creation and adaptation projects, preliminary impacts on students, impacts on the authors’ other work, changes in the way authors view their contributions to higher education, and success factors, both realized and unrealized. Interactive exercises throughout the session will engage audience members in reflecting and sharing realized or perceived success factors and challenges related to undertaking similar projects at their home institutions.
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    Introduction to Earth Science
    Neser, Laura (Virginia Tech Department of Geosciences in association with Virginia Tech Publishing, 2022-12-13)

    Introduction to Earth Science is a 530+ page open textbook designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to Earth Science that can be freely accessed online, read offline, printed, or purchased as a print-on-demand book. It is intended for a typical 1000-level university introductory course in the Geosciences, although its contents could be applied to many other related courses. This text includes various important features designed to enhance the student learning experience in introductory Earth Science courses. These include a multitude of high-quality figures and images within each chapter that help to clarify key concepts and are optimized for viewing online. Self-test assessment questions are embedded in each online chapter that help students focus their learning. QR codes are provided for each assessment to allow students using print or PDF versions to easily access the quiz from an internet-capable device of their choice. Adapted from openly-licensed works in geoscience, the sequence of the book differs from mainstream commercial texts in that it has been arranged to present elementary or foundational knowledge regarding rocks and minerals prior to discussion of more complex topics in Earth Science. Unlike prominent commercial texts for Earth Science, this book dedicates an individual chapter to each of the three major rock types, the processes of mass wasting, geological time, Earth history, and the origin of the universe and our solar system. Book content has been further customized to match the Pathways General Education Curriculum at Virginia Tech with a focus on Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for Pathways Concept 4, Reasoning in the Natural Sciences. Are you a professor reviewing or adopting this book for a course?
    Instructors adopting or reviewing this text are encouraged to record their use by filling out this form. This helps the book's sponsors to understand this open textbook's impact. How to access the book
    This text is available in multiple formats including PDF, a low-resolution PDF which is faster to download, and ePub. These are linked on the left side of your screen. The book is also available in HTML (Pressbooks).
    Softcover print versions with color interior are available at the manufacturer’s lowest price. Order a print copy here.
    The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. ISBNs
    ISBN (PDF): 978-1-957213-34-7
    ISBN (HTML/Pressbooks): 978-1-957213-33-0
    Pressbooks
    ISBN (print): 978-1-957213-36-1
    Order a print version
    ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-957213-35-4 Table of contents 1. Understanding Science 2. Plate Tectonics 3. Minerals 4. Igneous Processes and Volcanoes 5. Weathering, Erosion, and Sedimentary Rocks 6. Metamorphic Rocks 7. Geologic Time 8. Earth History 9. Crustal Deformation and Earthquakes 10. Mass Wasting 11. Water 12. Coastlines 13. Deserts 14. Glaciers 15. Global Climate Change 16. Energy and Mineral Resources 17. Origin of the Universe and Our Solar System Find, adapt, and share resources
    If you wish to share resources you build from this book or find those shared by other adopters of this book, please join the instructor portal. Attribution
    This work includes content from multiple sources reproduced under the terms of Creative Commons licenses, Public Domain, and Fair Use. Specifically: Chapters 1-16 are adapted from An Introduction to Geology (CC BY NC SA) by Chris Johnson, Matthew D. Affolter, Paul Inkenbrandt, and Cam Mosher. Chapter 17 is adapted from Section 22.1 of Chapter 22 “The Origin of Earth and the Solar System” by Karla Panchuk in Physical Geology, 2nd edition (CC BY) by Steven Earle, with Sections 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4 of Chapter 7 “Other Worlds: An Introduction to the Solar System” from OpenStax Astronomy, 2nd edition (CC BY). And, figures are from a variety of sources; references at the end of each chapter describe the terms of reuse for each figure. Version notes located at the end of the book describe author changes made to these materials by chapter. About the author
    Laura Neser, Ph.D. is an Instructor in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. Dr. Neser earned her B.S. in Geosciences at Virginia Tech in the spring of 2008 and completed her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 2014. Her doctoral research focused on the structural geology, sedimentology, and stratigraphy of formations that were deposited along the flanks of the Beartooth Mountains as they rose during late Paleocene-Eocene time. Dr. Neser has worked as an athletic tutor and online instructor at The University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC), in temporary positions as an Adjunct Instructor at Chowan University (Murfreesboro, NC) and Full-Time Lecturer at Indiana State University (Terre Haute, IN), and as a Professor at Seminole State College (Sanford, FL) before starting as an Instructor at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2021. Although she is currently focused on teaching online sections of Introduction to Earth Science, Earth Resources, Society and the Environment, and Climate History, her teaching background is significantly broader and includes Environmental ‬Science, Astronomy, Environmental ‬Ethics, Earth History, Structural Geology, and Field Geology‬. Suggested citation
    Neser, Laura (2023). Introduction to Earth Science. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Department of Geosciences. https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. Licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0. Report errors
    View errata Funding and project support
    This publication was made possible in part through funding and publishing support provided by the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. Accessibility statement
    Virginia Tech Publishing is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Pressbooks (HTML) and ePub versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability. Disclaimer
    This work may contain components (e.g., illustrations, or quotations) not covered by the license. Every effort has been made to clearly identify these components but ultimately it is your responsibility to independently evaluate the copyright status of any work or component part of a work you use, in light of your intended use. Please check the references at the end of each chapter before redistributing.
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    The Joy of Missing Out on Expensive, Ill-Fitting Course Materials: Improving Fit, Reducing Student Financial Stress, and the Case for Open Educational Resources (OER)
    Walz, Anita R.; Neser, Laura (2023-05-18)
    Join Pathways Geosciences 1004 Instructor extraordinaire and OER adapter of Introduction to Earth Science, Dr. Laura Neser, and University Libraries’ Assistant Director of Open Education and Scholarly Communication Librarian, Anita Walz, in a story-filled, no-pressure presentation. We’ll cover viable alternatives to expensive course materials, and support available at VT to adopt, adapt existing, or create high-quality openly-licensed course materials that better fit your teaching and your class. Hear stories, ask questions, and try your hand at identifying what’s available in your discipline. Learn about the impact faculty can make at VT -- and beyond. (In case you have fear of missing out regarding the AI session, we will talk about potential uses of AI as it pertains to OER.)