PSYC185: Psychology of Exceptional Children FINAL

ZCCM • Inclusive • Grateful

First Impressions

Before participating in this FLC, I had minimal knowledge of Affordable Learning Solutions (ALS) and Open Educational Resources (OER). While I understood the goals of ALS and OER, I was humbled by how much thought and consideration goes into identifying materials that do not violate copyright laws, are easily consumable by students, and are accessible in formatting. I feel fortunate that this FLC was geared toward making my class more accessible and inclusive.

Benefits & Challenges

Benefits/Challenges/Discoveries
Benefits of AL$/OERs	Challenges of AL$/OERs	Discoveries
I think there are many benefits to this FLC. It gave me the opportunity to reimagine what course materials helped facilitate learning for students (e.g., use of videos rather than just text passages). Students were generally incredibly appreciative of this option. This course is now a ZCCM course that incorporates more thoughtful and inclusive supplemental material about disability than the previous course material.	Finding quality materials that were relevant to the course material, accessible, and consumable by students was the most difficult aspect of ASL/OER. I spent a considerable amount of time over the summer looking for material that would fit my needs. Also, the use of the "remix" option may not have been the most preferred by students as the source of the reading materials changed every class. I attempted to negate this increase in response effort by linking the related text in my canvas page.	Given that my class is a survey class on developmental disabilities, finding a single resource that fit all of my learning objectives was not possible. As such, I used the "remix" option. I used a variety of terms to find resources including names of specific disabilities, disability studies, as some examples. Meeting with my librarian (Melissa) was so helpful in expanding the number of repositories that I searched. She recommended searching through multiple journals (e.g., Journal of Learning Disabilities; Disability Studies Quarterly) to help find related course materials.

Pathway:

I selected the "remix" option as it was difficult to find a single OER that the learning objectives for the course.

Reflection on Resources:

As mentioned above, I found my librarian, Melissa Cardenas-Dow, to be exceptionally helpful. Melissa assisted with helping understand copyright issues with previously selected materials and provided insight on other places to look for AL$/OERs. I look forward to continuing to remix this course and update the materials in the future.

Course Materials
*Before*	*After*
Students liked the previous textbook (used Fall 2023; the last time I taught this class). However, I recall multiple students telling me that they struggled to keep up with the readings because they "shared" the textbook because of the cost. The previous textbook cost approximately $92 for a hardcopy or $75 for a rental, online version of the book.	Course materials include podcasts, videos, online textbooks, and articles. The course materials are ZCCM! I am still able to successfully cover all of the learning objectives in the course and meet the student's needs.

Student Survey Data

Results
Survey Data Points
During my mid-semester student feedback, I asked students to rate how helpful and interesting the course materials were. The majority of students ranked "strongly agree" or "agree" to the selected readings being both helpful and interesting. No students selected any of the "disagree" options. I also asked if students would have preferred a textbook over the selected readings and overwhelmingly, students selected "strongly disagree." When offered an opportunity to provide additional feedback a student wrote: "I really appreciate the open ed cause I have an app read it to me. also it's free!!!"

Recommendations & Advice

I highly recommend that all faculty try to make their courses either low- or zero-cost for students. Although I initially struggled (and put in a lot of prep time) to find materials, I am thankful for the experience. Knowing that my students saved money and were still able to benefit from my course made the effort more than worth it. I encourage faculty to think out of the box on what materials would help supplement student learning (e.g., podcasts and videos instead of text passages!).

Faculty Biography

Faculty Bio
Faculty Image	About me:
	Dr. Ciobha McKeown is an Assistant Professor of Psychology with a specialty in Behavior Analysis. Prior to joining Sacramento State, Ciobha developed a short-term, intensive early intervention program at University of Florida Health’s Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment. As such, Ciobha’s research is focused in improving the quality of care of neurodiverse children. She also is passionate about extending behavior analytic methodology to infants with an elevated likelihood of being diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental disorder.

**Program Sponsors**
	This work was supported by: Sacramento State Academic Affairs - Center for Teaching and Learning California State University Affordable Learning Solutions Program & SB 1359