Interdisciplinary Development of Geoscience OER: Formative Evaluation and Project Management for Instructional Design

This chapter reports part of a multistage design-based research (DBR) project and focuses on the question: What are effective procedures for an interdisciplinary team to create low-cost, meaningful, and accessible open-access textbooks for laboratory methods in geosciences? Between August 2016 and May 2019, the researchers from multiple disciplinary areas studied the design and development of open educational resources (OER) for analytical methods in geoscience courses. The initial iteration of this DBR study consisted of analysis and exploration, followed by the OER design and development with formative evaluation. The analysis and exploration included identifying instructional and noninstructional problems based on a literature review, an analysis of context and resources, and formation of an interdisciplinary team. The formative evaluation included testing the developed OER usability by both faculty and students, reflecting on the design and development, and collecting peer review feedback. The findings provided recommendations for interdisciplinary team-based design and development of OER in a scientific laboratory environment. Suggestions included collaborative project management and data management for developing media-rich OER in STEM education.