The College of Education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) has developed an open, “plug-and-play” tool allowing customization of OER textbooks by adding interactive assessments to enhance student retention, engagement and accountability. The tool tracks students’ activities and visually displays their progress to both instructors and students via dashboards. Designed using open-source software, the tool is freely available to educators at UHM and beyond.
Engaging students during out-of-class work and keeping them accountable for that work are key factors for student success (Hwang, Lai, & Wang, 2015). While web-based resources are often used in online and face-to-face learning environments, they typically do not include embedded assessments, nor do they track student progress as they use those resources. Instructors report an ongoing need for online systems that provide students with formative assessments and provide faculty with feedback on student progress (Seaman & Seaman, 2018).
This presentation will provide participants with a preview of how educators can use the tool to customize OER textbooks and use student progress data through the tool’s dashboards. We will also share preliminary results from a study piloting the tool in a graduate level course then provide a question and answer period in which session attendees can share their feedback and related experience.
Ariana Eichelberger