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10.4: How to Contribute to this OER

  • Page ID
    76250
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    For the students who just finished reading this book, recognize that you can contribute to. Far too often, the voices of students are overlooked when it comes to textbooks. This is interesting, isn’t it. The traditional textbook is written by an individual professor or group of professors who have the knowledge, skill, and ability to take a concept from their discipline and crystalize it into a digestible set of materials. And the primary audience is students, so while students are viewed as consumers of the textbook, they aren’t considered producers of the content. In some ways, this makes no sense. Students who contribute to what they read. And they can.

    You are personally invited to contribute to Introduction to Political Science Research Methods. This textbook is an Open Education Resource with the CC-BY-NC license. What does this mean? It means that the end of this book has been reached, but it is just the beginning for you to contemplate how you want to contribute to this textbook.

    Maybe a key term definition was unclear? Well, update it to make it clear. Maybe a chapter section was under-explained? Ok, then add to it or re-write it all together. Maybe a picture would have been worth a thousand words? Great, then find a CC-BY-NC picture that include it. Or maybe we missed an entire topic that should be its own chapter? Superb, then draft a chapter and add it to the resource.

    The beauty about Open Education Resources is that they are freely available to everyone, which invites everyone to participate in their cultivation. Up until very recently, this cultivation was reserved for people who it made it through graduate school, join the ranks of the professoriate, and maintained their membership in the academy. But, as with all things, changes afoot. What this OER represents is an opportunity to shape knowledge and to create a broader understanding of our world to the eyes of more, and more people. If you are planning on contributing to this OER, then we encourage you to reach out to the authors and co-authors of the various chapters. They will be more than happy to answer your questions and encourage you to become a contributor. There are a variety of resources that can help you get a lay of the OER land. We would strongly encourage you to visit the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges’ Open Educational Resources Initiative webpage for a host of information: www.asccc.org/directory/open...initiativeoeri.


    This page titled 10.4: How to Contribute to this OER is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Josue Franco, Charlotte Lee, Kau Vue, Dino Bozonelos, Masahiro Omae, & Steven Cauchon (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.

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