This post was contributed by Amy Hofer and Veronica Vold. It excerpts content from the Open Curriculum Development Model, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Open Oregon Educational Resources published the Open Curriculum Development Model [Website] as a comprehensive collection of training and process materials for a variety of audiences: authors, pilot instructors, support roles, and project leaders who are developing openly licensed textbooks and ancillaries with an equity-minded design approach. At the end of a three-year process, we are ready to launch high-quality course matierals designed with an equity lens.
This post explains what we mean by “high-quality” and “equity lens,” and shows how we connect our criteria for success for textbooks and course development with equity-minded instructional design frameworks.
Equity Lens
We often use the metaphor “equity lens” when we write about our curriculum design model. This is a widely accepted term in Oregon: our Higher Education Coordinating Commission adopted an Equity Lens [Online PDF], and this tool aligns with both the statewide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Plan [Online PDF] and with strategy statements at all 24 of our public community colleges and universities.
However, the term “equity lens” has also been critiqued on the basis that a lens can be put on or taken off. Using this language might give the impression that equity work is temporary or only applicable in some situations. Extending the metaphor, the Equity in Education Coalition [Website] urges people to “ditch the lens, and get equity lasik.”
In the context of the Open Curriculum Development Model, we find it useful to acknowledge that a lens can be taken off, and that our project participants choose to keep it on. In Doing the Work: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Open Educational Resources [Website], an award-winning training that guides our curriculum, Heather Blicher and Valencia Scott write that “Leading with an equity lens in curriculum design means shining a light on underrepresented perspectives, centering them, and diving deeper into the histories of systemic oppression that lead to social injustices and disparities we live with today.” Educators who keep the lens in place engage with their current practices and continue to look for opportunities that improve their approach to teaching and learning.
Developing course materials with an equity lens means that textbook authors and course instructors will work towards a shared vision (the vision for our curriculum is described in the Open Curriculum Development Project Equity Statement [Website]). Of course, “lens” and “vision” are both metaphorical terms that have to do with project goals. To unpack these metaphors, we developed criteria for success for textbooks and course development to concretely describe what we mean by high-quality course materials. Our curriculum returns to these criteria at each step of manuscript and course development to ensure that participants are supported in meeting them.
Matrix of Approaches for Equity-Minded Design
The criteria for success that we share in the following sections are grounded in four instructional design frameworks that together center the learning needs of first-generation college students, students with disabilities, students of color, and other historically marginalized groups. The Matrix of Approaches for Equity-Minded Design, below, shows how our criteria for success align with these powerful approaches to teaching and learning with an equity lens. We discuss these instructional design frameworks throughout manuscript and course development to show how our curriculum supports best practices for teaching and learning. We encourage project participants to consider how these frameworks resonate with learning theories they already use.
| Design Framework | Learner Focus | Representation of Diverse Voices | Accessibility | Oregon Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transparency in Learning and Teaching | Anticipate and address barriers for new learners by clearly defining the purpose, tasks, and success criteria for assignments. | Explain learning expectations to maximize success for underserved learners. | Structure materials for intuitive navigation and easy comprehension. | Ask students to apply textbook learning to their own lives and contexts. |
| Culturally Responsive Teaching | Acknowledge that culture shapes learning. | Include culturally diverse experts in textbook content. | Include content from diverse experts in multiple media formats. | Include diverse Oregon stories to help students achieve learning outcomes. |
| Universal Design for Learning | Assume that learner variability is the norm. | Encourage student agency and choice in sharing knowledge. | Meet project accessibility standards to maximize success for students with disabilities. | Provide local and current stories to increase engagement. |
| Open Educational Practices | Invite students to join in open content creation. | Provide open license education for informed and ethical future use. | Coach students on how to make their shared or open content accessible. | Validate the students’ use of Oregon stories to help them achieve learning outcomes. |
How to learn more about these instructional design approaches:
- Transparency in Learning and Teaching: TILT Higher Ed [Website]
- Culturally Responsive Teaching: Understanding Culturally Responsive Teaching [Website]
- Universal Design for Learning: The UDL Guidelines [Website]
- Open Educational Practices: The Open Pedagogy Project Roadmap [Website]
Open Curriculum Development Project Textbook Criteria for Success
Our criteria are divided into four categories that, when layered together, make up our definition of high-quality course materials. You can find them in the curriculum at the link Open Curriculum Development Project Textbook Criteria for Success [Website].
Learner Focus
- Chapter is written clearly and uses inclusive language
- Chapter anticipates learner variability (reading level: grades 8-12)
- Chapter-level objectives are listed and aligned with the content of the chapter
- Chapter contains all the parts needed to accomplish the learning objectives
- Chapter includes multiple forms of media that are relevant to the text
- Student discussion and reflection questions are clearly identified in call out boxes or predictable places in the chapter
- Chapter includes at least 3 accessible H5P interactives that are tied to chapter learning objectives
- Chapter is well organized and reads as a unified text
- Chapter is consistent in tone, approach, and style
Representation of Diverse Voices
- Chapter includes diverse images, voices, viewpoints, or perspectives
- Chapter lifts up historically minoritized identities
- Chapter contains up-to-date, relevant, and diverse scholarship and examples
- Chapter includes accurate citations and attribution statements
Accessibility
- Images include figure captions and either alt text or long descriptions; do not rely on color to connote meaning; are drafted at high resolution
- Videos include accurate captions, audio description, and transcripts (including when shared as optional content)
- Chapter uses consistent headings, in order, that break up the content into a predictable cadence
- Up to 10 key terms are listed that reinforce chapter concepts, are defined as Glossary Terms, and are aligned with chapter-level objectives
- Total chapter engagement is scoped to 10,000 words, or no more than 90 minutes of total engagement (approximately 72 minutes of reading time + 18 minutes of required multimedia)
- All links include descriptive text with the link destination, as well as framing that connects to the learning objectives
Oregon Context
- Copyright restrictions are minimized so that downstream users (your Oregon colleagues) have permission to revise, remix, and share forward
- Chapter spotlights are relevant and inclusive of diverse Oregon perspectives
- Chapter spotlights invite Oregon students to connect lived experiences to chapter content
- Figure captions are clearly connected to chapter learning objectives and include a statement/question inviting Oregon students to make connections with lived experience
Open Curriculum Development Project Course Design Criteria for Success
As above, our criteria are divided into four categories that, when layered together, make up our definition of high-quality course materials. You can find them in the curriculum at the link Open Curriculum Development Project Course Design Criteria for Success [Website].
Learner focus
- Course-level learning outcomes and module-level objectives are aligned and use student-friendly words.
- Assessment prompts use transparent design for teaching and learning (purpose, task, criteria for success).
- Criteria for graded assessments are clear (rubrics, exemplary student work).
- Assessments include low-stakes, frequent opportunities for students to test new skills and knowledge.
- Assessments allow for multiple means of student expression (text, video, discussion, creative work).
- Course content includes multiple means of representation (text, images, video, multimedia).
- Course activities offer multiple means of engagement (individual reflection, group work, creative expression, guest speakers, student presentations).
Representation of diverse voices
- Assessments allow students to integrate their lived experiences with course content.
- Course content includes representation of diverse community stakeholders.
Accessibility
- Module/page organization is consistent and intuitive.
- Course images include alt text and text descriptions for infographics, figures, and charts.
- Course pages and documents include appropriate structure with headings, lists, and reading order.
- Course slide decks use slide layouts, appropriate font size, and alt text for images.
- Course video and audio files include audio captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions.
- Course materials do not use color alone to denote meaning.
- Course tables aren’t used for content layout, don’t merge cells, and include a header row
- Course links are descriptive rather than displaying the URL text by itself.
- Images include figure captions.
Oregon context
- Copyright restrictions are minimized so that downstream users (your Oregon colleagues) have permission to revise, remix, and share forward.
- Course activities include opportunities for meaningful peer-to-peer interaction.
“Open Curriculum Development Project Course Design Criteria for Success” is adapted from the “The OSCQR Rubric” by SUNY Online, licensed CC BY 4.0, and the “Peralta Online Equity Rubric” by the Peralta Online Equity Initiative, licensed CC BY 4.0.
Funding
Our grants drew from Governor’s Emergency Education Relief funding and the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) in the U.S. Department of Education (eighty percent of the total cost of the program is funded by FIPSE, with the remaining twenty percent representing in-kind personnel costs funded by Open Oregon Educational Resources).
The contents of this post were developed under a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
