Greetings Colleagues, I trust you're well. Richard Bradberry, Morgan State University (MD), shares the news below. Congrats Morgan State! Respectfully, Sandra Morgan State University News October 18, 2021 Morgan State receives $20,000 to develop Geospatial Mentorship program Baltimore, Maryland - Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) initiative grants $20,000 to Morgan State University for the Morgan Open Education Resources Mentorship Initiative. Morgan State University received $20,000 from the Maryland Open Source Textbook (MOST)<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.oer-2Dmaryland.org_support-2Dsustain_most-2Doer-2Dgrant-2Dprogram_&d=DwMFaQ&c=0CCt47_3RbNABITTvFzZbA&r=W5riO58B6NmDl0GpaM9J1PsR2PB3nGbeRquvTpM0qbk&m=ShPAkm_52UXPczsEHoWlVv2IlBcMGQkWenx4e_KT2Sg&s=ObLl018dJBwfDjFl9_yq-6pQ7pfm0IVKb9wbIUbvLg8&e=> Initiative to establish the Morgan Open Education Resources Mentorship Initiative (MOERMI), as one of three institutional grants awarded by MOST to increase accessibility, affordability and academic achievement with systematic incorporation of Open Education Resources (OERs) into teaching practice. The mentoring project connects faculty who have little or no previous experience in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and related technologies with Morgan's in-house geospatial experts through a "train-the-trainer model." Faculty participants will gain practical skills sets and knowledge bases of how geospatial technologies can be used in their disciplines. Two-faculty participants from each of Morgan's nine schools will be invited to participate in the program over the course of one year, and will create course modules, lesson plans and other activities that will equip students with a basic understanding of how geospatial technologies can be used in their future professional careers and serve as a basis for further skills development. Dr. Linda Loubert, Chair of the Economics Department and one of Morgan's Geospatial experts said that "Technology is ubiquitous throughout our society, and it behooves us to ensure that our students are well-equipped to use some of the best technological tools around--GIS." Dr. Loubert also expressed optimism about the potential of MOERMI: "As a GIS professional and a political economist, I believe this opportunity for mentoring others so they can use this tool is advantageous to the university and the students. Numerous disciplines can incorporate this tool specifically for their classes. We can grow our students into successful careers with this tool as part of their repertoire." The MOERMI Project includes an interdisciplinary team of faculty and staff from Morgan's James H. Gilliam, Jr., College of Liberal Arts, Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. School of Engineering, the School of Education and Urban Studies, the Institute for Urban Research, Academic Technology Services, and the Earl S. Richardson Library. More Responsive Geospatial Education The grant enables greater faculty access to geospatial technologies and data resources to enhance student success. Geospatial tools from GIS to global positioning systems (GPS) offer an array of scenario options for instructors to help students connect to and explore virtually and in-person the causes and consequences of society and nature. Using the whole world as a laboratory, faculty may use instructional resources generated by MOERMI to create learning moments for students that are far more experiential, meaningful, and engaging in scope than ever before. "Geospatial technologies like GIS are as eye-opening as they are world-altering," says Associate Professor Mark Barnes, PhD of History, Geography and Museum Studies. In a world of dramatic and rapid change undergirding the humanities, behavioral and social sciences, STEM, and even the arts with spatial analytic tools creates opportunities for researchers to expand the range of place-based practice and policy interventions for climate change, toxic waste, education crises, economic recessions, transportation inequalities, poverty, racially disparate health care and housing, pandemics, and other matters of an environmental and social nature. Dr. Barnes says, "For enhanced implementation effectiveness geospatial technologies enable a more precise accounting and visualization of risk-filled places Black, indigenous, and other people of color occupy around the globe". A steady decline of geospatial curricula at HBCUs has been observed in recent years. MOERMI aims to reverse that trend with an eye towards trans-displinarity and replication beyond the campus footprint of Morgan. OERs at Morgan The grant complements a broader institutional commitment by Morgan State to develop and acquire Open Education Resources. In 2019 Morgan's Richardson Library conducted a Textbook Cost and Impact Survey to evaluate how textbook costs affects accessibility to education and academic achievement. The results showed that: * 81.38% of students report that they have not purchased a textbook because it was too expensive. * 68.84% of students report a belief that their grades have suffered because they could not afford a textbook * 36.43% of students report that they have taken fewer courses because they could not afford a textbook. * 24.87% of students report that they have withdrawn from a course because they could not afford a required text. * 42.21% of students report that they have considered withdrawing from school because the cost of textbooks was unsustainable. "There is no better proof of how textbook costs are negatively impacting students than by hearing from students themselves" said Bryan Fuller, Government Documents Librarian. "With this grant we can get ahead of the problem by not only mitigating the cost of existing GIS resources, but also creating geospatial OERs that are much more representative of the lived experience of our students. Resources generated by the project will be disseminated through well-known OER repositories to increase accessibility to students and faculty around the country, and expand the value created by this project. "We are grateful to the MOST Initiative for this opportunity to develop a new set of robust, flexible, and accessible education resources for GIS at a time when textbook costs are increasingly beyond the reach of many students at Morgan." said Dr. Richard Bradberry, Director of the Earl S. Richardson Library. "This grant comes at a most opportune time, as Morgan expands both its commitment to adopting and creating responsive OER and expands geospatial education and learning and research resources." ABOUT MOST The Maryland Open Education Textbook Initiative is a Maryland state-sponsored initiative founded in 2014 to facilitate faculty efforts to explore the promise of OER, and to reduce students' cost of attendance while maintaining or improving learning outcomes. MOST launched its OER Grant Program in 2017 and since then has supported 111 projects across 26 Maryland public higher education institutions, with a cumulative savings of $7.6 million. As part of its commitment to OER development through the Grant Program MOST provides extensive learning, technical and other support for awardees during the development of their projects. See more about MOST here : https://www.oer-maryland.org/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.oer-2Dmaryland.org_&d=DwMFaQ&c=0CCt47_3RbNABITTvFzZbA&r=W5riO58B6NmDl0GpaM9J1PsR2PB3nGbeRquvTpM0qbk&m=ShPAkm_52UXPczsEHoWlVv2IlBcMGQkWenx4e_KT2Sg&s=nYfa3cO_GEhj1fQalEnuKnHRYWWepIEHqXVP_TKWApE&e=> See more about MOERMI here: https://library.morgan.edu/moermi/ ### Sandra M. Phoenix, Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance Atlanta University Center Woodruff Library 111 James P. Brawley Drive SW Atlanta, GA 30314 404-702-5854 (cell) http://www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> Honor the ancestors, honor the children and those yet to come. Building Capacity for Humanities Special Collections at HBCUs - Become an ally and partner with us to protect, preserve and share a more authentic record of American history. Follow this link http://hbculibraries.org/humanities-2019.html for more information. 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