Laurie Browne

Dr. Laurie Browne, Assistant Professor in the Department of Recreation, Hospitality, and Parks Management at CSU, Chico, considered her course, Recreation Program Planning (Recr 220) to be a prime candidate for the Textbook Alternatives Project. Dr. Browne was dissatisfied with the current textbook used in the course by Rossman and Schlatter (2011)*, as well as the other standard textbook used across the country in core recreation program planning courses like hers. She found both textbooks to be outdated, expensive, and not experiential based. To replace the textbook in her course, Dr. Browne found or produced the the following materials herself: journal articles from the web, videos that she created each week with her iPad, textbook chapters scanned to pdfs, eBook chapters, PowerPoint presentations, and many videos that she found on the web. She also worked with her department librarian, Irene Korber, but they both found that there are not many Open Educational Resources (OER) available on the Internet for courses like hers, and for the subject matter field of Recreation in general.

When asked about her experiences in TAP, Dr. Browne reported that giving up the textbook gave her increased flexibility in her course, but that her students missed the structure of a textbook and the "nice linearity that a textbook defines." Browne also warns that dumping a textbook, "has been incredibly time consuming for me. Very, very, time consuming. Because I am continually reexamining all of the readings and finding new things and replacing, and I would warn anybody to be aware of that. Quite frankly maybe only recommend it to someone who has a readily available alternative. I did not, so I am trying to create this alternative. And as brand new faculty with ton on my plate, it’s been hard and takes a ton of time."

Nevertheless, when asked if she were to teach the same class again, would she replace the textbook again, or go back to using a textbook, she replied, " No, I am not going back."

*Rossman, J.R. & Schlatter, B.E., (2011). Recreation Programming: Designing and Staging Leisure Experiences. (6th edition)

Laurie Browne's Initial  Project Summary

Initial proposal idea for replacing current textbook or lowering textbook cost.

The short-term proposal for replacing the current textbook is to identify a set of materials to replace textbook content.  So far this semester (Spring, 2013), content has included textbook chapters, e-book chapters, journal articles, videos, PowerPoint presentations, and podcasts.  The long-term proposal is to create an open access source for content and student blogs that can be accessed and augmented by student and faculty users across the country.
 
Savings, if you can estimate, to students overall.
 
The original textbook cost $90 new.  I have approximately 60 students per semester, so I estimate a $5,400 savings to students overall.
 
How you are complying with copyright law if using copyright protected materials?
 
I am complying with copyright law by limiting textbook chapters to one chapter per text, or no more than about 10% of a single text.
 
How you are addressing accessibility of course materials?
 
I am eager to learn more about accessibility, but one thing I am currently doing is providing multiple options for a single piece of content when possible (e.g., a podcast or the script of the podcast, a PowerPoint presentation or a textbook chapter).  I also try to provide a variety of content types: video, text, images, etc. to appeal to different learning styles.
 
Name of co-helper(s), Librarians and/or ITCs
 
I am currently working closely with Ann Steckel to develop the portfolio portion of this course.  Irene Korber is helping to identify materials (both in print and electronic) to use for content.