Acknowledgements
Developing and writing curriculum are just some of the duties involved in being the instructor of a new NDT program. Finding affordable, quality technical resources is a challenge facing all instructors and the lack of availability for the Career and Technical Education fields compounds the difficulty of the quest. LBCC and Open Oregon Educational Resources have provided the opportunity for our diverse OER team to collaborate, creating this Radiation Safety OER. It seems only appropriate to point to the recent data (https://www.linnbenton.edu/news/open-educational-resources-fall-2018.php) showing that OER has saved students over $3 million in textbook costs in the last 3 years!
Jason S. Ballard earned his Associate of Applied Science Degree in Metallurgy from LBCC in 1991 and went on to earn his BS and Masters in Education from Western Oregon University. Jason spent over 20 years as a high school manufacturing instructor before taking a positon with LBCC in 2016 as a full time NDT instructor. Tasked with building a new NDT program and developing a progressive curriculum, Oregon OER was a perfect fit. As the primary author of the Radiation Safety OER, Jason brought together an outstanding team to assist in the work.
Performing the peer review of the OER for content accuracy was Seaton McLennan. Seaton is the current Co-Chairman of the LBCC NDT department with over 30 years of Metallurgy and NDT experience. Seaton taught Metallurgy and Materials Testing for 25+ years until his retirement in 2004. In 2014, regional and local aerospace casting industries pushed for a new NDT Program at LBCC and Seaton came out of retirement to build the new program. Seaton is highly respected in the region, having trained most of the area Level-III NDT inspectors currently employed at ATI Cast Albany, ATI Cast Millersburg, Selmet, and PCC in Portland, Oregon to name a few!
Creating an affordable curriculum for LBCC students was the primary task of this OER. Another goal was to translate all of the glossaries and other sections into Spanish to better accommodate and encourage Spanish speakers and readers to take NDT 130 with an opportunity to learn in their native language. To accomplish this task Susan Mejia was recruited to translate the material, and NDT student Ricardo Ortiz Ramirez was tasked with peer reviewing Susan’s translations for technical content specific to NDT.
Susan, born and raised in rural Oregon, moved to Mexicali, Mexico with her husband and family where she learned to read and write Spanish fluently. Since her return to Oregon, Susan has worked as an interpreter and translator for children and families in rural Oregon schools. Susan’s work on the OER is a great service to our education community, providing ELL students an opportunity to study and learn technical subject matter such as Radiation Safety, leading to high-wage, sustainable careers in NDT.
Ricardo Ortiz Ramirez contributed uniquely to the OER. With his ability to read and write Spanish, coupled with the fact he is an NDT student and employed as a professional NDT inspector, Ricardo provided the perfect skills and familiarity with NDT to evaluate and edit Susan’s translations. Ricardo is a dual citizen of Mexico and the United States. He was born in Mexico and enrolled in elementary school when his family emigrated to the U.S. Ricardo learned to read and write Spanish from his oldest sister and now shares his bilingual abilities with the Career and Technical Education community.
LBCC OER Librarian Michaela Willi Hooper shared research strategies, copyright expertise and feedback on all of the OER, providing countless hours of support. Her passion to provide affordable resources is commendable and greatly appreciated.
