Research Coordination Network (RCN) Incubator: Designing an Infrastructure and Sustainable Learning Community for Integrating Data-Centric Teaching Resources in Undergraduate Biology Education
Our goal: closing the gap in the Open Educational Resources (OER) life cycle for biological data-centric teaching materials. Many instructors have participated in the early steps of the OER life cycle, but the cycle is rarely completed. Instructors are familiar with working through the stages of finding the research data, adapting it for classroom use, using the materials in their own courses, and even refining those materials for use in future semesters, but often stop before sharing the materials and completing the cycle.
Our RCN Incubator will tackle the following questions towards the goal of building a sustainable open source community around using data-centric authentic inquiry resources in the classroom:
- What are effective approaches and technical solutions for bringing together faculty, educational resource developers, and data providers to significantly improve usability and accessibility of authentic data resources?
- What are the key barriers preventing faculty from adopting and adapting data centric-approaches in their classes, and what elements of support can faculty learning communities provide?
- How do we structure, facilitate and incentivize a sustainable learning community centered around the use and adaptation of data-centric resources that perpetuates the OER model?
Read the full project summary for the RCN Incubator here.
In-Person Meeting at Life Discovery Conference
The PI's, steering committee members, and data resource experts will be meeting on October 19, 2017 at the Life Discovery: Doing Science Education Conference in Norman, OK.
More logistical details to help you plan your travels are available here.
Planning ride-sharing from to and from the airport?
Agenda
Wednesday, October 18: Group dinner - meet in the hotel lobby at 6:30p to head to GP405: A Norman Gastropub (also in the hotel)
Thursday, October 19: Garden Room 1 at the Marriott Conference Center at NCED (the hotel)
8:30am: Coffee
9am: Introductions and group discussion
Noon: Lunch
1:30pm: Working Groups
4pm: Large group rejoin
5pm: Ajourn
6:30pm: Meet in hotel lobby to head to dinner in Norman
Friday and Saturday, October 20 - 21: Life Discovery Conference
Steering Committee:
Kaitlin Bonner (PI), Assistant Professor, St. John Fisher College
Arietta Fleming-Davies (Co-PI), Assistant Professor, University of San Diego
Kristine Grayson (Co-PI), Assistant Professor, University of Richmond
X. Ben Wu (Co-PI), Professor and Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence, Texas A&M University
Deborah Allen, Professor & Director, Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education, University of Delaware
Ahrash Bissell, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Monterey Institute for Technology and Education
Sam Donovan, Lecturer, University of Pittsburgh
Kristin Jenkins, Director, BioQUEST
Alison Hale, Program Manager for Science and Research, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Bryan Heidorn, Director, School of Information Resources and Library Science, University of Arizona
Teresa Mourad, Director of Education and Diversity Programs, Ecological Society of America