Spotlight on an OER

This week, we’ll be featuring an OER course site developed through the OER Faculty Fellowship, here at CityTech.

English 1101: Reading & Writing About New York City – Developed by Prof. Theodora Siranian, the site’s clean appearance is amplified by a photo of the Brooklyn Bridge, which helps orient visitors to its content.
Prof. Siranian notes, “City Tech’s OER Faculty Fellowship helped me create an open-access, resource-sharing site for my English 1101 course. This site provides my students with cost-free access to the course’s entire curriculum, and creates a wonderful digital synthesis between classroom activities, homework, and long-term projects.” 
The overall cohesion  is supported by the layout: students can quickly navigate to their Syllabus, Research Project, and Essay Assignments from the main menu bar. If they are seeking additional writing resources, those are also available under “Helpful Style & Grammar Resources,” such as the Purdue OWL site, and Excelsior OWL. CityTech resources, such as links to the Atrium Learning Center and New Student Center are found on the homepage, where students are most likely to find them.
Prof. Siranian’s site achieves visual simplicity, while also providing a direct path to important content. She also confirmed that the student experience has been strongly positive: the class “has been extremely receptive to [the site’s] accessibility and cohesion.”