Faculty Spotlight
Dr. McGowan-Kirsch is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication with a background in rhetoric.
Dr. Angela McGowan-Kirsch joined the Fredonia faculty in 2015 after completing her PhD at The University of Southern Mississippi. As an associate professor of communication studies, Dr. McGowan-Kirsch teaches classes in the Department of Communication including Rhetoric & Criticism, Persuasion, Political Communication, and Communication Theory among others. She is a 2023 recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2019 Open SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador for Fredonia. Her research interests include rhetoric, political communication, women in politics, and college students’ online political engagement.
OER Contributions
Dr. McGowan-Kirsch began incorporating open educational resources in 2018 when she built an OER summer course – Mass Media and Society. “I wanted to find creative ways to integrate videos, scholarly readings, and photographs into the online lectures so that students could learn about the history of mass media in a more creative way. OER enabled me to achieve this goal,” she said. Dr. McGowan-Kirsch created a reader and located dozens of supplemental materials that helped her reduce the financial cost of the course. Since then, Dr. McGowan-Kirsch has designed an open pedagogy assignment–a class Wiki–into the course. She commented, “The Mass Media & Society Wiki is available to people worldwide so that individuals with an interest in mass media and society have relevant information at their fingertips.” As Wiki page designers, students are responsible for applying course content to real life while engaging readers in an interactive way.
Additionally, Dr. McGowan-Kirsch has assigned an open pedagogy assignment in her Communication Theory course. This assignment requires that students write content for an open scholarship textbook that exposes readers to theories of communication. While discussing this assignment, Professor McGowan-Kirsch shared, “Each student contributes two chapters to the open access textbook. The general purpose of the student-written textbook is to introduce readers to major issues and perspectives in communication studies while helping them think about and analyze communication in a theoretical way.” After collaborating on a title, the class decided that the open access textbook should be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License so that people worldwide can share and adapt content from the book.
Takeaway
“Incorporating OER and open pedagogy into the curriculum is rewarding yet challenging. Before integrating these tools, it is important that faculty consider how the use of open educational resources and open access assignments supports learning,” Dr. McGowan-Kirsch stated. She continued, “If faculty decide to incorporate open access assignments, I recommend contacting Christina Hilburger to see if she can do a Creative Commons presentation for the students and meet with Dawn Eckenrode to see what resources are available.”
Dr. Closson is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education with a background in special education.
He has taught undergraduate courses in Adolescent Development and Introduction to the Exceptional Learner. He has also taught graduate courses in Adolescent Development and Introduction to the Exceptional Learner. He has also taught graduate courses in Assessment & Instruction of Diverse Learners I & II.
His research interests are in exploring the use of the human capability theory to develop a pro-inclusive mindset in P-12 educators to assist in the transition and implementation of evidence-based practices and multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) to meet the needs of all students.
OER Contributions
Dr. Closson converted to OER for one of his undergraduate courses in the Spring 2023 semester. His intent was to reduce the cost to students, by providing students an option to the high cost for a textbook. “I found the OER materials comparable to the former text by utilizing various sources to get the same content” he said.
Takeaway
Dr. Closson noted, “The transition to OER was made easy because of the support provided by Dawn and Christina. I provided my syllabus and they searched for and found OER options for me to consider. If I had to do it all on my own the transition would have taken much longer and implementation delayed further. My students really appreciated the transition to OER and the savings they accrue in not having to buy a textbook. This process has afforded me the opportunity to provide equitable access for my students to fully participate in my course.”
Dr. Jessica Finkeldey is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice in the Sociocultural and Justice Sciences Department at SUNY Fredonia.
She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology, specializing in Criminology, from Bowling Green State University in 2017. Dr. Finkeldey’s research largely focuses on the predictors and consequences of contact with the criminal justice system. Her recent research has appeared in top criminology and sociology journals including Criminology, Journal of Gambling Studies, Social Problems, and Social Currents, among others.
Dr. Finkeldey primarily teaches courses in criminal justice, such as introduction to criminal justice, introduction to corrections, criminology, capital punishment, and race, crime, and justice. She also teaches statistics in the real world and research methods. She has experience teaching face-to-face, remote (virtual synchronous), and online (asynchronous) courses.
OER Contributions
Dr. Finkeldey’s dedication to utilizing open education resources began in 2018 when she was looking for cheaper alternatives to traditional textbooks. “Many of my students and advisees expressed concerns over the high cost of required course materials,” she said. To reduce students’ financial burden and increase students’ access to education, she adopted OERs. Dr. Finkeldey also explained that she was interested in adopting open educational resources because “students were able to access the course material immediately as opposed to waiting for a physical textbook.”
When she transitioned her first class from a traditional textbook to open education resources, Dr. Finkeldey used an open access textbook. “Admittedly, I was initially intimidated with the idea of compiling open access readings to cover an entire semester, so I decided to use an open access textbook.” However, the guidance and assistance she received from Fredonia’s Open Educational Resources Course Redesign Incentives encouraged her to compile individual readings. “Once I became comfortable with finding open access readings, I felt confident enough to gather materials as opposed to using an open access textbook.” This enabled her to tailor the required readings to the topics she wanted to focus on. Dr. Finkeldey now customizes most of her courses with a variety of open access readings, journal articles, and websites. She currently has seven courses that use open educational resources.
Takeaway
“Using open access resources has increased my students’ engagement with the course material, which makes teaching even more enjoyable,” Dr. Finkeldey said. She encourages faculty who are considering OERs to utilize the resources available on Fredonia’s campus to learn more about open access resources.
Dr. Jabot is a Professor of Science Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Dr. Jabot is the Director of the Institute for Research in Science Teaching and a NASA Earth Ambassador. He is a recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research as well as being recognized for excellence from numerous professional organizations.
OER Contributions
Dr. Jabot has utilized OER in all of the courses that he teaches here at Fredonia. "In each and every case the opportunity to use OER has allowed me to bring the most current events and data that shape the content that we work within our courses," he said. He has also extended the principles of OER to include Open Data and Open Source technologies in the coursework. "By extending OER using these principles, I am able to cast the work we do to meet the needs of both students here, but also allow my students to see the way that Open Education/Data/Technologies impact people around the globe," Dr. Jabot said.
Takeaway
While Dr. Jabot recognizes that there is anxiety about moving in this direction, he has found that the learning opportunity for both student and professor is incredible. He said, "By taking on this "lens" of recasting my courses this way I have learned so much and have gone in directions I never thought would have been possible!"
Dr. Susan Spangler, Professor of English, has taught at the State University of New York at Fredonia since 2006. She has taught online courses since 2009 and has developed numerous courses for the English department at Fredonia in every area of English studies, including writing, language, teacher education, and literature.
Spangler developed a professional interest in OER through the Reed Library’s OER incentive program several years ago. Her first impulse was to cut the cost of textbooks in her courses. Spangler reflects, “When I began teaching Grammar for Everyone, the cost of the recommended book was $120. I quickly learned that many students simply couldn’t afford the book. By searching online, I found many comparable, free online resources that students could access from anywhere in the world, and I began incorporating those into the course.”
OER Contributions
Within the next year, Spangler partnered with instructors in ENGL 100, The Craft of Writing, to help make all of Fredonia’s first-year writing course sections into OER courses. “All the instructors agreed that we could support our first-year students with reduced textbook costs in a general education course,” Spangler said. “It took a concerted effort to find OER resources that applied to writing, and we were so fortunate to have Reed library staff with us to help curate OER materials. The beauty was that we could all find materials that would work in our unique sections, keeping the integrity of our courses but still making sure the students didn’t pay for a common text.”
Takeaway
Spangler finds that teaching online courses with OER is helpful to students because they can easily be worked into lessons and modules. “When students log in to their online course, many want all the course readings and materials to be available to them in one spot—online. OER allows students to access materials in the way they expect,” Spangler said.
Dr. Spangler encourages all instructors, whether teaching face-to-face or online, to consider using OER in their courses. In partnering with library staff to help find and evaluate resources, instructors may be surprised at both the quality and quantity of free materials available.
Are you a faculty member or Fredonia educator who has successfully utilized open resources in teaching? Submit an email to christina.hilburger@fredonia.edu if you would like to tell us about it, and be featured in our faculty spotlight!