This week, we’ll take a look at a course developed through the OER Fellowship program at CityTech. Prof. Katherine Gregory’s site was intended as a supplement to the core course content, but is filled with readings on health care access, patient navigation, and other topics. Job training resources are included, contributing another layer of relevance for students. We asked Prof. Gregory a few questions, to get a sense of the process and experience in the OER Fellowship Program, which lead to the development of the site.
Would you describe the OER you created?
Through the summer Fellowship, I was able to build out a site for Health Services Administration (HSA) 3602 – Health Services Management II, a core course that fulfills one of the program’s writing requirements. Building the platform came with a few exciting rewards and caveats, and City Tech provided an excellent opportunity to develop my awareness and utilization of open-access resources and universal design.
What were some of the obstacles in creating your OER?
HSA 3602 has been book-cost free for many years, but the course has long needed more cohesive content to anchor the curriculum. Finding current open-access resources about health care administration remains challenging. The Fellowship has also made me more vigilant about course materials and properly citing those sources in the classroom.
How did it work out in practice?
The site was set up for students to access the Open Lab as an ancillary source for HSA 3602. Throughout the semester, I directed students to the landing page. This was under the auspices of finding paid internship and job opportunities at City Tech, CUNY, and around New York City. Building out these student resources has been an ongoing development as new sources become available to me. Often students have been incentivized to visit the Open Lab site specifically to explore these opportunities.
The Open Lab provided a much-needed refresher about universal design; this aspect of the training was invaluable to me. The tools available on the platform have raised my awareness about how curricular content should be delivered and made accessible to all students; and through this awareness, I have, in turn, passed on this knowledge to my students.
