Vasbinder Creates OER Course from 2023 M.O.S.T. Faculty Grant

Jill Vasbinder, adjunct faculty, Department of Dance (Dance Appreciation, Dance History) has created an Open Educational Resource (OER) dance history course as a recipient of the 2023 Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) Faculty OER Grant Program.

The course, Dance History I: Cultural and Classical Forms, offers a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable curriculum that examines the history of dance. Vasbinder began exploring the use of open licensed materials in dance and dance education as a way to practice inclusion in the classroom.

Vasbinder received a $2,000 grant plus participation in the Rebus Textbook Success Program to create the OER course this past year.

She has published and presented on the use of open licensing in dance and viewed the M.O.S.T. Faculty OER Grant Program as an opportunity to “transform Dance History I into an OER course that can be shared with dancers and dance educators … to help bring a more inclusive understanding of a greater variety of dances.”

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.