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Higher Education

Faculty Publications

2013

Education

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Full-Text Articles in Education

The Cost And Quality Of Open Textbooks: Perceptions Of Community College Faculty And Students, Tj Bliss, John Hilton Iii, David Wiley, Kim Thanos Jan 2013

The Cost And Quality Of Open Textbooks: Perceptions Of Community College Faculty And Students, Tj Bliss, John Hilton Iii, David Wiley, Kim Thanos

Faculty Publications

Proponents of open educational resources (OER) claim that significant cost savings are possible when open textbooks displace traditional textbooks in the college classroom. We investigated student and faculty perceptions of OER used in a community college context. Over 125 students and 11 faculty from seven colleges responded to an online questionnaire about the cost and quality of the open textbooks used in their classrooms. Results showed that the majority of students and faculty had a positive experience using the open textbooks, appreciated the lower costs, and perceived the texts as being of high quality. The potential implications for OER initiatives …


The Pastoral Practice Of Christian Hospitality As Presence In Muslim-Christian Engagement: Contextualizing The Classroom, Mary E. Hess Jan 2013

The Pastoral Practice Of Christian Hospitality As Presence In Muslim-Christian Engagement: Contextualizing The Classroom, Mary E. Hess

Faculty Publications

This project involved inviting graduate-level classes to contextualize their study in relationship with a specific Lutheran congregation in an urban and multifaith neighborhood. In doing so, the Christian practice of hospitality—especially understood in terms of presence—was particularly pertinent. Learning took place in context, far more efficiently and effectively, through engagement with rather than teaching about each other. Ultimately the project members experienced learning in the presence of other faiths as deepening one's own faith, while inviting genuine respect for other faiths.