Y1 Unit 1.5: Introducing Background Scans
Our Research Consultant has prepared a background scan for your project that presents both openly licensed and all-rights-reserved textbooks and curricula that already exist for your course. We’ve used the terms “open” and “openly licensed” quite a few times already without diving into what they mean, and it’s okay if you don’t know their definitions yet. We will cover this in depth next, in Unit 2.
Your background scan is a gold mine of information to lay the groundwork for your project. However, it may feel like an overwhelmingly vast amount of information to process. We have you start looking at your background scan right away because you will need time to analyze and work through the information.
You’ll find the background scan listed in both Unit 1’s and Unit 2’s tasks. For this unit, plan to look through and take notes on more than half of the open materials and more than half of the commercial materials. You will do the remaining ones in Unit 2, but you have a lot of other to-dos, so we recommend getting a head start on more than half of your background scan now.
Here are the three main reasons that you should be familiar with what’s in your background scan:
- Situate your project in the ecosystem of available materials: understand how others approach scope, structure, etc., to make sure that you’re in the ballpark of what others will want to use for the course.
- Differentiate your work from what already exists: understand what’s currently available so that you make sure you are creating something distinct that fills a gap or solves a problem with existing options for the course.
- Identify openly licensed content that you want to reuse or adapt: you don’t have to reinvent the wheel! At the same time, you’ll notice gaps that will need to be filled with original content (text, media, images, interactives, and more).
As you read, aim to get an idea of what’s already out there with a focus on other authors’ approach to equity. Do the texts in your background scan meet any of this project’s criteria for success, introduced above? The background scan includes a notes field and rating tool, explained below, to capture your assessment of each resource.
What’s in the Background Scan?
To get started, open the document {Course #} Background Scan.
Your background scan is presented on a spreadsheet separated into three tabs. The first tab is for existing open materials, and the second tab is for existing commercial materials. The third tab collects Oregon learning outcomes for your course.
Tab 1: Open materials
In this unit, we use the terms “open” and “openly licensed” and you have probably noticed that we haven’t defined those terms yet. We will get there in Unit 2. For now, the main thing to know about open materials is that you can reuse them, with attribution, in your own work.
Figure Y1 1.5 describes each column in the first tab of your background scan document.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Column A: Title | The name of the resource and a link to its home page. |
| Columns B and C: Author and Publisher | The name of the author and/or publisher. In some cases one of these will be blank. Many government-authored public domain materials don’t list an author, and some authors release open educational resources without publisher support. |
| Columns D, E, and F: Year, edition, unique identifier | Further bibliographic information, when available. Many open educational resources don’t include this information. Unique identifiers may be digital object identifiers (DOIs), International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs), or identifiers used by the government. |
| Column G: License | The license provides information about how to legally use, mix, and attribute these resources. We go into more detail about what you need to know about copyright and licenses in Unit 2. |
| Column H: Table of Contents | Link included if the main landing page linked in Column A doesn’t have a full table of contents. |
| Column I: Other versions | Examples: translations, local adaptations, or different formats. |
| Column J: Known Oregon Adoptions | Sourced from the Open Oregon Resources page [Website] and syllabi that use open educational resources (likely not a complete list). |
| Column K and L: Research Consultant Notes and Author Notes | Additional information such as scope, links to reviews, license notes, etc. Feel free to add your own notes here!
To keep track of different author comments, use the comment feature or initial your comments (or add a new column for your own notes if it’s going to be a lot). |
| Columns M-R: Rating System | This is an optional rating tool aligned with our project’s criteria for success. You can rate resources from 1 (needs significant revision to meet criteria for success) to 5 (fully aligned with criteria for success). When you select a number from the dropdown menu, the total in column R will auto-populate. |
Evaluate Open Materials in Tab 1
Tab 1 of your Background Scan includes open materials from a variety of open educational resource repositories. This tab may include textbooks and full courses as well as some relevant chapter and module-level resources.
The questions below prompt you to think about this project’s criteria for success with respect to your background scan materials. Please make a copy of the document Evaluate Open Materials [Google Doc] to get started.
- Learner Focus
- How many chapters does this resource have? Would this resource work in a 10-week term?
- Does the author use an inclusive and approachable writing style?
- What chapter elements do you see? This might include embedded assessments and interactives like H5P, examples, illustrations, diagrams, scenarios, case studies, overviews, or summary.
- Representation of Diverse Voices
- How would a student from a historically marginalized community see members of their community represented in this resource?
- Does this resource encourage a sense of self-reflection about positionality, identity, and personal responsibility for building a community that respects, honors, and supports diversity?
- What would be lost/missing if this source wasn’t adapted into your project?
- Accessibility
- What is the average chapter length? How many sections (headings and subheadings) are in a chapter?
- Are accessibility features already in place, such as alt text, descriptive links, and video captions, or will the content need remediation?
- Oregon Context
- How well does this resource align with your statewide course outcomes?
- What about the resource will keep students interested in reading/interacting with it?
- Are there intentional ways for students to connect the content to their identities, backgrounds, cultures, and/or the identities, backgrounds, and cultures of others?
Use the rating tool to evaluate one of your resources in the Open Materials tab. These questions are designed to get you started with determining what to reuse as-is or adapt for your own book. We recommend that you use this tool at least one time for practice. We will discuss the rating tool at our kickoff meeting, and we will explore equity-minded design further in the next unit.
Tab 2: Commercial materials
These are all-rights-reserved commercial textbooks from major publishers (Pearson, McGraw Hill, Sage, Cengage, Wiley, and Oxford). Figure Y1 1.6 describes each column in the second tab of your background scan document.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Columns A-F: Bibliographic information | Standard bibliographic information for commercial texts. |
| Column G: Table of Contents | Link usually goes to the book’s homepage on the publisher’s website. While you’re there you can look around for other helpful information such as reviews and features. |
| Column H and I: Research Consultant Notes and Author Notes | Additional information such as when a text is known to be required at an Oregon institution. Feel free to add your own notes here!
To keep track of different author comments, use the comment feature or initial your comments (or add a new column for your own notes if it’s going to be a lot). |
Tab 3: Oregon learning outcomes
These are relevant learning outcomes for your course.
If your course has gone through the Common Course Numbering or Major Transfer Map process then those are the outcomes included.
Otherwise, these outcomes are gathered from public higher education institutions in Oregon. They are not presented in any particular order so you are welcome to sort them according to your needs.
Figure Y1 1.7 describes each column in the third tab of your background scan document.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Column A: Outcome/Objective | Course-level student learning outcomes or objectives. |
| Column B: Institution | The college or university these outcomes/objectives are from. |
| Columns C and D: Course Number and Title | Numbering and naming may vary by institution. |
| Column E: Source | The Source column links to the syllabus or page the info was found on, or provides the name of the person who shared it. |
| Column F and G: Research Consultant Notes and Author Notes | Additional information from the research consultant. Feel free to add your own notes here!
To keep track of different author comments, use the comment feature or initial your comments (or add a new column for your own notes if it’s going to be a lot). |
Congratulations, you made it to the end of the first unit in this curriculum! We know it’s a lot of information. If you’re not sure how to tackle your to-dos, return to the Task List With Time Estimates at the beginning of the unit – this is your checklist for Unit 1.
Unit Self-Check Questions
Licenses and Attributions for Introducing Background Scans
Open content, original
“Introducing Background Scans” by Open Oregon Educational Resources is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Open content, shared previously
“What’s in the Background Scan?” is adapted from “Using the Background Scan Sheets” by Michaela Willi Hooper for Open Oregon Educational Resources, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
