2022 ISU Textbook Hero John Curry
Channel: ISU Libraries
Date: 2022-03-09

As of if the Idaho State University's Open Education Week Dr. John Curry speaks about how he decided to create and implement open educational resources (OER) into his courses.

John H. Curry is an Associate Professor of Education at Idaho State University and chair of the Organizational Learning and Performance department. He teaches courses in the Instructional Design and Technology Master’s program and in the EDD in Educational Leadership program.  His research interests include the design, development and implementation of online learning and instruction; emerging learning technologies; and the mentoring of graduate students.  He has published nine journal articles, six book chapters, in five conference proceedings, and three book reviews. Last year his first book, "The greatest lecture I was never taught", was published. He has also given over 70 peer-reviewed conference presentations, as well as over 35 invited presentations and workshops. Dr. Curry is active in his field.  He was elected to the AECT (Association for Educational Communications and Technology) Board of Directors multiple terms. He also served on the Executive Committee, the division leadership for both the Emerging Learning Technologies and the Technology Integrated Learning divisions. He fulfilled numerous committee assignments, and was a member of the Leadership Development Committee for a decade. He is currently the conference planner for the 2022 AECT International Convention, and he also planned the 2019 AECT International Convention.  The AECT Division of Emerging Learning Technologies gives an annual award, the John Curry distinguished service award, named for him in honor for his service to the division and the organization.  

He holds a PhD in Instructional Technology and a MA in the Theory and Practice of Writing, both from Utah State University.  He also earned a BA in English from Brigham Young University.

Notes from the discussion:

David Wiley, a colleague and friend of Dr. Curry, is a foundational person in the field of OER.

He asked two important questions that inspired Curry to begin creating/using OER in his courses.
- Why should knowledge cost money?
- You must make the commitment and don’t look back.

John Curry a field expert in the field of Instructional Design. Was an English major

Curry decided to write his own content and used as many OER sources as possible. It took at least two years to get all of his courses written. 

History of OER because of his field and history because of his long-standing work with OER. 

The quality of content must be present. 

Creates his own content.

Shoot lecture videos every semester. Helps to personalize it for current students and ongoing online discussions. 

Standard videos he has open on his YouTube channel. 

Curry recommends that OER-beginners should get in touch with their librarian to help with the search process of finding relevant OER and for information about the process of publishing OER (i.e. Pressbooks at ISU).

Since OER has been set up:

Prep time of material is less

Videos are the same because they are made each year

Must check links year to year

Helps the instructor be more aware of the students’ experience

Continually try to give less by more quality content

Allows an instructor to match their content with their teaching style

Textbooks are essentially a written lecture. Curry is a storyteller, so he says that his textbooks are stories with content thrown in. 

AECT - Assoc. Educations Communication Technology (academic field for technology)

Where to get the best content according to Curry:
- Textbooks.org https://edtechbooks.org/ . ck12 , OPenstax
- Best OER journal is also published OER: JADE / Journal of Applied Instructional Design

Link to PressBooks for Idaho State University community: https://isu.pressbooks.pub/

Idaho State University Libraries Open Educational Resources Guide: https://isu.libguides.com/OER