About Me:
I am the Administrative Assistant to the Grove Center for Excellence in Science Education. I work closely to support all members of the Grove Center team, ensuring that the organization's processes run efficiently. I began my college career at Penn State before moving to Upstate New York, where I completed my degree in History online at Grand Canyon University. With this degree I also gained a background in educational practices and strategies. From this unique perspective, I feel I can provide vital feedback and insight for both online and in person learning experiences. Since coming to The Grove Center, I have partnered with others in the Grove Center to complete various projects to support faculty, staff and students. I enjoy collaborating with others as it gives all involved new opportunities to view situations from different perspectives.
Why are Open Educational Resources (OER) so important?
The spreadsheet that we created is a guide to help Eberly College of Science faculty, staff and students understand what types of course material is being used within Eberly courses. There are instructors in the same department who might not know what materials are being used by others in the same course, this guide will help communicate this need. Students across the country are struggling to afford textbooks that cost upwards of $500 and study materials or lab material that will also range in costs.
Our Open Educational Resource(OER) guide also helps instructors to individualize the materials for their courses, this also allows diversity, equity and inclusion goals by allowing students the chance to use cost saving material (Spitalniak, 2023). Instructors can now upload pages from textbooks or articles they want students to read into tools like Perusall, which allows the students to make notes, highlight passages, and also see what their classmates highlight. Using Open Educational Resources helps to ignite student engagement when they are able to see others from their backgrounds represented (Spitalniak, 2023), whether in class or with course materials used.
Ask me about: The Grove Center for Excellence in Science Education, Learning Spaces, Open Educational Resources, Innovation Showcase, learning communities, Evidence-Based Teaching Academy (EBTA), Welcome and Connect, LA Program, LA Scholarships
Fun fact about me: I enjoy spending time with my family on my small farm where we have chickens, ducks and goats. When I get free time, I enjoy browsing flea markets and antique stores for unique finds from forgotten times, canning, preserving, gardening and crocheting.
