Open Educational Resources

Affordable Learning Georgia Releases Interactive OER Lab Manual

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 01/29/20

Two faculty members from the University of Georgia have developed a lab manual for anatomy and physiology and made it available as an open educational resource. The work was led by DeLoris Hesse, an associate professor, and Dan McNabney, a senior lecturer, both in the Department of Cellular Biology at the university. It was funded by an Affordable Learning Georgia grant.

The Anatomy and Physiology I Lab Manual was created for a course by the same name, which has sections typically enrolling an average of 140 students. The manual contains labs on cells, histology, the integumentary system, the skeletal system, the nervous system, muscles and the senses.

With this addition, OpenALG, a textbook project from Affordable Learning, now has six proof-of-concept open textbooks, four of which have been updated this month. Those include an American History I text from Gordon State College; Exploring Public Speaking, 4th Edition and Arts Integration in Elementary Curriculum, 2nd Edition, from Dalton State College; and Microbiology for Allied Health Students, from South Georgia State College.

OpenALG's goal is to convert static textbook files for core curriculum courses into accessible, web-based content that can be highlighted and annotated. All of the latest materials have been produced using an open source platform, Manifold Scholarship, for publishing academic books online. Its tools enable authors to add interactive capabilities and multiple forms of media to their books.