Recipient Organization
KANSAS STATE UNIV
(N/A)
MANHATTAN,KS 66506
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The rising cost of textbooks has become a barrier to affordable higher education. One solution is open textbooks - textbooks which have been released under intellectual property licenses allowing their free use and repurposing. We propose a planning activity to plan the development of an open textbook for introductory soil science courses. Our objectives are to 1) engage soil science educators, 2) recruit potential chapter authors, 3) promote diversity among textbook contributors and users, 4) finalize a textbook outline, and 5) develop a proposal to the USDA Higher Education Challenge Program for a Collaborative Grant Type 2. We will accomplish this by conducting a survey of introductory soil science educators and holding a series of face-to-face and virtual meetings to engage educators and textbook development experts. Those meetings include several events held during the Soil Science Society of America meetings - a symposium and town-hall discussion on open textbooks, focus groups, and a roundtable discussion - as well as virtual focus groups and a series of meetings to summarize our findings, finalize the textbook outline, identify textbook contributors, and develop our next HEC proposal. Stipends will be provided to soil science educators representing various college and university types or underrepresented groups to ensure diversity among contributors. We predict the textbook will collectively save students up to $313,000 annually. This project will strengthen instruction delivery systems and student recruitment and retention (HEC Goal 1), attract students to the soil science profession (HEC Goal 2), and facilitate cooperation between multiple institutions (HEC Goal 3).
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
We propose a series of planning meetings that collectively represent the "building a team" and "project scoping" portions of the open textbook development process. Our objectives related to building a team are to: 1) engage soil science educators in the textbook development process, 2) recruit potential chapter lead authors and co-authors, and 3) promote diversity among contributors to the textbook. Further, our objectives related to project scoping are to: 4) finalize an outline of the textbook, and 5) develop a plan for a proposal to the USDA Higher Education Challenge Program for a Collaborative Grant Type 2.We expect our objectives for the open textbook will evolve during the planning meetings. However, our preliminary objectives for the open textbook, which will serve as a guiding focus during the planning meetings, are to 1) provide a user-friendly open textbook targeted for undergraduate college students in introductory soil science courses, 2) involve multiple contributors that bring diverse backgrounds and represent each of the soil science subdisciplines, 3) highlight the soil science professional tracks and opportunities for increased diversity and inclusion, 4) create a Spanish language version of the textbook, and 5) facilitate the use of the textbook as a learning tool for the Soils Fundamentals Exam.
Project Methods
Soil Science Instructor SurveyWe will conduct an online survey targeted towards soil science instructors in the US. The survey will be designed to 1) gauge interest in an open textbook for introductory soil science courses, 2) collect feedback on a preliminary outline, 3) determine what ancillary materials have the highest demand, 4) identify potential contributors to the open textbook from diverse backgrounds and determine how they would prefer to contribute, and 5) promote involvement in the face-to-face events at the SSSA meeting and virtual focus groups.The survey will be conducted using the Qualtrics (Seattle, WA, US) online survey tool. A link to the survey will be distributed through the SSSA Discussion Boards (an online forum) and SSSA email list-serves. Emails with the survey link will also be sent to soil science instructors with existing access to the ancillary materials for the Soils Laboratory Manual authored by PD Moorberg or who voluntarily contributed their email to the survey conducted by Jelinski et al. (2019). The survey will also be distributed via social media.Survey Results Discussion, Targeted Invitations, and Pre-meeting Strategy SessionBased on survey results we will refine our preliminary textbook outline and identify takeaway messages that warrant discussion during the face-to-face and virtual focus group discussions.Our team desires more thorough input, a greater diversity of perspectives, and increased accessibility expertise than is represented among the project team at this time. We also desire participation by soil scientists who identify with groups under-represented in the discipline based on race, gender, or disability. We also seek increased diversity in the leadership team and textbook contributors. To accomplish this, we will identify individuals within our professional network or among survey respondents willing to participate in these discussions and that openly identify with groups underrepresented in the soil science discipline and offer them $2,000 stipends to participate in person at the SSSA meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, or $300 stipends for participating virtually. We have identified four such individuals so far (see letters of support from Eivazi, Griffan, Korrigan, and Co-PD McGahan).Open Textbook Symposium and Discussion with the SSSA Soils Education and Outreach DivisionPD Moorberg is an organizer for a symposium at the SSSA meeting titled, "Open Textbooks: How Do They Work? Could I Develop One?" The Symposium is sponsored by the SSSA Soils Education and Outreach Division and co-sponsored by the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) K-16 Education Community. It will feature invited talks from open textbook authors followed by an extended discussion period during which the concept for the open textbook for introductory soil science will be presented and discussed among the audience in a town-hall-style discussion.Face-to-face Instructor Focus GroupsWe will facilitate face-to-face focus groups to better understand what instructors would like to see in an open textbook for introductory soil science. This will occur during the SSSA meeting. It will be open to conference attendees but will also include the invited contributors described above. Participants will sit at tables in groups of four to eight people. Collaborators on this proposal will serve as group leaders and lead the table discussions. Participants will be provided with a preliminary outline of the textbook to spur discussions about textbook content. Discussions will begin with self-introductions, followed by group discussions centered on a set list of discussion questions. Each group will be given a large, easel-sized, sticky notepad and markers. Each page will have a pre-written question for the group to discuss. The groups will be given 10 minutes to discuss each question and record their responses or ideas on the sheet of paper. Once they are done, they will remove that sheet from the notepad and stick it on the wall. From there, other groups will be able to see responses from other groups. We will take five minutes to reflect on the variety of responses and identify common themes. This process will be repeated for the full set of questions, or until time runs out for the event.Each notepad sheet will be photographed and later transcribed into a summary report. A copy of that summary will be provided to each participant who provides an email address on a sign-in sheet at the event. The summary will also be used to guide discussions during the end of meeting discussion and in the post meeting grant proposal planning sessions.Virtual Focus Group SessionsWe seek to collect feedback from three groups of experts who are unable or unlikely to attend the SSSA meeting. Those include (1) soil science instructors, (2) practicing soil scientists, and (3) education experts. Thus, to engage these three audiences we will hold three 2-hour virtual focus group sessions over Zoom in addition to the face-to-face focus groups described above. Virtual focus group 1 will include instructors from a variety of soil science sub-disciplines, institutions, and instructional backgrounds. During the virtual focus group 1 session, we intend to understand common needs of soil science instructors, identify gaps in soil science educational materials, and brainstorm ideas for textbook development like what was described for the face-to-face focus groups. Virtual focus group 2 will target soil scientists working in government, industry, non-profits, and private consulting. The virtual focus group 2 session will serve as an opportunity to learn how the OER textbook content could better serve their professional needs and how the textbook could help better prepare soil science students for careers in the discipline. Virtual focus group 3 will invite education experts including experts in pedagogy, undergraduate science education, graphic design, and textbook design. The discussion during virtual focus group 3 will aim to identify best practices for developing educational materials for hands-on, tactile subject matters such as soils.Each virtual focus group session will follow the same format as the face-to-face focus group with breakout rooms in place of physical tables. Virtual focus group 1 (instructors) will be held concurrently on Zoom during the face-to-face focus group session. Virtual focus groups 2 (practicing soil scientists) and 3 (education experts) will be held within the same month as the face-to-face focus group. We will solicit a call for participation prior to the focus group sessions and assign breakout room discussion leaders based on number of attendees. Feedback will be collected from participants through two mechanisms (1) notes taken by the discussion leader in each breakout room, and (2) written feedback to open-ended questions provided by participants at the end of the focus group through a Microsoft form.End of Meeting Roundtable DiscussionWe will hold a three-hour, face-to-face meeting on Wednesday afternoon at the end of the SSSA conference. Participants will include all Co-PDs on this proposal plus the invited attendees who received stipends to attend the SSSA meeting and participate in these planning sessions. Goals of this meeting include 1) discuss and summarize the feedback from all participants, 2) identify takeaway messages that will guide the textbook project moving forward, and 3) identify potential chapter lead authors and contributors. If time permits, we will begin discussion on the plan for a Collaborative Grant Type 2 proposal to the USDA Higher Education Challenge Program.Post-Meeting Grant Proposal Planning SessionsVirtual meetings to finalize the outline, establish the leadership team, identify open textbook contributors, establish the grant proposal PDs, and draft a USDA HEC Collaborative Grant Type 2 proposal will begin in January and will be conducted via Zoom.