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Short Abstract
Editors from MERLOT provide in-depth details on the many applications and academic benefits of peer-reviewed OER content in this engaging session. Join us as we explore easy searches for high-quality OER materials across hundreds of content types and repositories, and demonstrate how to create bookmarks, collections, and more.
Extended Abstract
While technology has become more prevalent over the last couple of decades within education, its effective use, particularly in academic and workplace settings, is vastly uneven. Instructors themselves benefit from high-quality technological tools with built-in quality review components such as MERLOT, especially those with the administrative infrastructure and support to implement such learning experiences. MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) provides exemplary developments for community-based, peer-reviewed digital resources through the use of a wide variety of open educational resource (OER) material types. Available learning materials range from animations to assignments; case studies to resource collections; full online articles, books, and courses, FREE to all users (faculty, staff, students).
Established by the California State University (CSU) system in 2000, MERLOT is a community-built repository of over 100,000 unique learning materials across all academic domains, including materials for K-12, higher education, as well as professional education needs. MERLOT’s unique learning object interface offers numerous methods for users to locate relevant and developmentally appropriate learning objects for individual lessons, courses, and lectures, and is openly available to all faculty, staff, students, and business professionals to utilize and adopt, along with developing a collection of one’s own to store and organize chosen materials.. Users can also browse the MERLOT bookmark collection and learning exercises by discipline and keyword; sort by peer-review rating to ensure adoption of the highest quality content per peers within similar academic disciplines; as well as contribute to Open Education themselves by hosting their own content through the MERLOT platform. Merlot’s biggest strength is its incorporation of other open education repositories (such as OpenStax, Coursera, EdX, and more than 20 others), allowing MERLOT users to use a one-stop search via MERLOT instead of time-consuming reviews across numerous platforms.
Unlike many pay-per-use tools, MERLOT offers a free membership, inclusive of all of their browsing and contribution functions. Additionally, MERLOT members can also become peer reviewers, join their specific academic discipline community, and become part of a speakers’ bureau. Currently, MERLOT has over 200,000 members in 185 countries, with over 4000 member institutions.
Primary Learning Outcomes for this Session Include:
1. Provide an overview of MERLOT online repository introductory and advanced search functionality
2. Showcase effective methods to locate and integrate high-quality OER materials into K-12, higher education, and professional educational courses from the lesson, course, and programmatic-level using MERLOT
3. Highlight innovative tools built into the MERLOT system that may benefit faculty, staff, students, and business professionals for organizing and promoting OER materials.
4. Outline the multi-step, peer-review process utilized for learning materials on MERLOT, and discuss ways for faculty and other users to become involved as peer reviewers
5. Provide examples from selected exemplary MERLOT Editorial Boards such as Engineering and Teacher Education,, showcasing real world applications of MERLOT on high quality, OER learning materials and how these may benefit individual academic disciplines
Established by the California State University (CSU) system in 2000, MERLOT is a community-built repository of over 100,000 unique learning materials across all academic domains, including materials for K-12, higher education, as well as professional education needs. MERLOT’s unique learning object interface offers numerous methods for users to locate relevant and developmentally appropriate learning objects for individual lessons, courses, and lectures, and is openly available to all faculty, staff, students, and business professionals to utilize and adopt, along with developing a collection of one’s own to store and organize chosen materials.. Users can also browse the MERLOT bookmark collection and learning exercises by discipline and keyword; sort by peer-review rating to ensure adoption of the highest quality content per peers within similar academic disciplines; as well as contribute to Open Education themselves by hosting their own content through the MERLOT platform. Merlot’s biggest strength is its incorporation of other open education repositories (such as OpenStax, Coursera, EdX, and more than 20 others), allowing MERLOT users to use a one-stop search via MERLOT instead of time-consuming reviews across numerous platforms.
Unlike many pay-per-use tools, MERLOT offers a free membership, inclusive of all of their browsing and contribution functions. Additionally, MERLOT members can also become peer reviewers, join their specific academic discipline community, and become part of a speakers’ bureau. Currently, MERLOT has over 200,000 members in 185 countries, with over 4000 member institutions.
Primary Learning Outcomes for this Session Include:
1. Provide an overview of MERLOT online repository introductory and advanced search functionality
2. Showcase effective methods to locate and integrate high-quality OER materials into K-12, higher education, and professional educational courses from the lesson, course, and programmatic-level using MERLOT
3. Highlight innovative tools built into the MERLOT system that may benefit faculty, staff, students, and business professionals for organizing and promoting OER materials.
4. Outline the multi-step, peer-review process utilized for learning materials on MERLOT, and discuss ways for faculty and other users to become involved as peer reviewers
5. Provide examples from selected exemplary MERLOT Editorial Boards such as Engineering and Teacher Education,, showcasing real world applications of MERLOT on high quality, OER learning materials and how these may benefit individual academic disciplines
Presenting Speakers
Dr. Sherri Restauri
Faculty, Department of Psychology at Coastal Carolina University
Dr. Sherri Restauri is a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Coastal Carolina University, where she teaches upper-level courses in Developmental Psychology, including special focus on Child Psychology, Adolescent Development, and Gerontology. In her role as a developmental psychologist, she advocates for enhanced understanding of short- and long-term impacts of trauma, as well as provides training and support to faculty, staff, and other professionals regarding a trauma-informed perspective in best supporting others. In addition to her role as a faculty member, Sherri previously served in Digital Learning administration in Higher Education for over 20 years, aiding universities in successfully launching and supporting successful digital learning as well as digital access and inclusion programs. Dr. Restauri received the 2021 OLC Gomory-Mayadas Leadership Award in Higher Education for her contributions and in recognition of her leadership in the online education community, including her work on digital equity, accessibility, and online best practices in teaching and learning. Serving now as a full-time educational consultant as well as a part-time faculty member, she is actively involved in assisting campuses and organizations across the globe with enhancing digital access, inclusion, and equity opportunities for learners of all ages, backgrounds, and neurotypes.
Dr. Lesley Farmer
Professor of Library Media at California State University-Long Beach
Dr. Lesley Farmer, Professor at California State University (CSU) Long Beach, coordinates the Teacher Librarianship program. She also manages the CSU ICT Literacy Project. She earned her M.S. in Library Science at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and received her doctorate in Adult Education from Temple University. A frequent presenter and writer for the profession, she is a Fulbright scholar and has garnered several honors, from local to international groups. Farmer’s research interests include school librarianship, digital citizenship, information and media literacy, and data analytics. Her most current books are Fake News in Context (2021, Routledge) and Reference and Information Sources and Services for Children and Young Adults (2022, Rowman & Littlefield).
Loretta Driskel
Senior Instructional Designer at Clarkson University
Eduardo Montero
Ph.D. at Universidad De Burgos
Eduardo A. Montero (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9948-3767 ) Ph. D. University of Burgos. He has been employed in the Department of Electromechanical Engineering at the University of Burgos, Spain, since 1984, being Assistant Professor since 1988 and Full Professor since 2017. Retired 2021. His academic expertise includes engineering thermodynamics, heat transfer and energy technology. For more than 37 years, he has developed international and national competitive research projects, and research services for industry. He is co-author of more than 75 articles published in high impact factor journals in the field of energy fluids. At present he is editor of the Engineering Board of MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching, www.merlot.org ), supported by the California State University.
Ashley Sergiadis
Digital Scholarship Librarian at East Tennessee State University
Irina (Irene) Knokh
INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Nancyruth Leibold
Associate Professor of Nursing at Minnesota State University-Mankato
Dr. Nancyruth Leibold is an energetic and passionate nurse educator who launched her nursing career in 1981. Nancyruth has nursing experience in critical care, medical/surgical nursing, public health nursing, health leadership education, and nursing education. Dr. Leibold has served as a Staff Nurse, Travel Nurse, Nursing Coordinator, Director of Nursing, Nurse Researcher, and Nurse Educator. She has an EdD from College of Saint Mary, MS in Nursing from Creighton University, and BSN from Nebraska Wesleyan University. Nancyruth completed a certificate program from Minnesota State University-Mankato in Faculty Teaching and a certificate program at Minnesota State University-Mankato for Excellence in Online Teaching. Nancyruth is a Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) through the National League for Nursing. Also, Dr. Leibold has a certificate in teaching online from the University of New South Wales in Australia. Nancyruth is a Reiki Master/Teacher and certified in mindfulness as a meditation guide and forgiveness coach. Dr. Leibold holds Advanced Holistic Nurse-Board Certification. Dr. Leibold’s research interests include holistic nursing and health, civility, nursing education, online nursing, instructional technology, feedback, and teaching strategies. Nancyruth is active in Sigma Theta Tau International, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the National League for Nursing, and the American Holistic Nursing Association. She is also an active member of the Watson Caring Science Institute, Society for the Advancement of Modeling and Role Modeling, Online Learning Consortium, and Association of Nursing Professional Development. Nancyruth is a reviewer for the Journal of Nursing Scholarship, Journal of Effective Teaching, the Journal of Effective Teaching in Higher Education, and the Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practices. She is a Sigma Theta Tau International Virginia Henderson Fellow. Dr. Leibold is the Editor of Health Sciences at MERLOT.
Nancyruth has received numerous nursing awards and teaching awards, such as the Caring in Nursing Award from the Sisters of the Incarnate Word at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, the Outstanding Faculty Award from the nursing student body at Creighton University, and the Excellence in Nursing Award from Sigma Theta Tau, Nu Rho Chapter. In 2013, Dr. Leibold received the Midwest/Heartland Nursing Excellence Educator and Mentor GEM award from nurse.com. She received the 2014 National Nurse Educator Award from Wilson Shepard Associates. In 2014, Nancyruth received the Phyllis Roseberry Service Award from Sigma Theta Tau International, Mu Lambda Chapter.
Dr. Leibold received the 2018 Excellence in Nursing Leadership Award from the Nursing Honor Society! In May of 2018, Dr. Leibold was awarded “Lesson of the Week” for a virtual lesson she authored: Comprehensive School Health Program by SoftChalk! In March of 2020, Dr. Leibold was honored to receive the 2020 Excellence in Nursing Leadership Award from the Omega Omicron Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International. In 2021 and 2022, Nancyruth received The MERLOT House Cup, and the Peer Reviewer Extraordinaire Award From MERLOT. In 2023, Nancyruth received the Peer Reviewer Extraordinaire Award from MERLOT.
Dr. Leibold began developing web pages for her courses in 1994, and her passion for distance and online teaching/learning has only grown since then. Nancyruth, a Certified Nurse Educator, has completed several online teaching/learning certificates. During a 2014 Presidential Teaching Scholar Fellowship from Minnesota State University, Mankato, she authored and designed virtual instructional modules and a virtual simulation about civility and conflict management for nurses. Multimodal publications are a favorite of Nancyruth, and she has written many for her online courses. Nancyruth has many professional presentations, grant awards, book chapter publications, multimodal publications, textbooks, and peer-reviewed journal article publications. Nancyruth recently published the second edition of her textbook: The Praxis of Critical Thinking in Nursing. She published the first edition of The Art and Science of Evidence-based practice in Nursing in 2020. In early 2021, she published a textbook for Health Educators titled Community Health and Health Promotion. Also in 2021 Nancyruth authored, edited, and published two holistic nursing textbooks that are Open Textbooks and found at MERLOT, Health Sciences. In 2023, Dr. Leibold published the second edition of the The Art and Science of Evidence-based practice in Nursing textbook.
Nancyruth has received numerous nursing awards and teaching awards, such as the Caring in Nursing Award from the Sisters of the Incarnate Word at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, the Outstanding Faculty Award from the nursing student body at Creighton University, and the Excellence in Nursing Award from Sigma Theta Tau, Nu Rho Chapter. In 2013, Dr. Leibold received the Midwest/Heartland Nursing Excellence Educator and Mentor GEM award from nurse.com. She received the 2014 National Nurse Educator Award from Wilson Shepard Associates. In 2014, Nancyruth received the Phyllis Roseberry Service Award from Sigma Theta Tau International, Mu Lambda Chapter.
Dr. Leibold received the 2018 Excellence in Nursing Leadership Award from the Nursing Honor Society! In May of 2018, Dr. Leibold was awarded “Lesson of the Week” for a virtual lesson she authored: Comprehensive School Health Program by SoftChalk! In March of 2020, Dr. Leibold was honored to receive the 2020 Excellence in Nursing Leadership Award from the Omega Omicron Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International. In 2021 and 2022, Nancyruth received The MERLOT House Cup, and the Peer Reviewer Extraordinaire Award From MERLOT. In 2023, Nancyruth received the Peer Reviewer Extraordinaire Award from MERLOT.
Dr. Leibold began developing web pages for her courses in 1994, and her passion for distance and online teaching/learning has only grown since then. Nancyruth, a Certified Nurse Educator, has completed several online teaching/learning certificates. During a 2014 Presidential Teaching Scholar Fellowship from Minnesota State University, Mankato, she authored and designed virtual instructional modules and a virtual simulation about civility and conflict management for nurses. Multimodal publications are a favorite of Nancyruth, and she has written many for her online courses. Nancyruth has many professional presentations, grant awards, book chapter publications, multimodal publications, textbooks, and peer-reviewed journal article publications. Nancyruth recently published the second edition of her textbook: The Praxis of Critical Thinking in Nursing. She published the first edition of The Art and Science of Evidence-based practice in Nursing in 2020. In early 2021, she published a textbook for Health Educators titled Community Health and Health Promotion. Also in 2021 Nancyruth authored, edited, and published two holistic nursing textbooks that are Open Textbooks and found at MERLOT, Health Sciences. In 2023, Dr. Leibold published the second edition of the The Art and Science of Evidence-based practice in Nursing textbook.
Using the MERLOT Repository to Support Teaching, Learning, and Open Education
Track
Learning Design, Instruction, and Open Pedagogy
Description
4/1/2025 | 3:15 PM - 4:00 PM
Evaluate Session
Modality: Virtual
Location: Zoom Room 1
Track: Learning Design, Instruction, and Open Pedagogy
Session Type: Featured Session
Institution Level: Higher Ed, K-12, Industry, Government
Audience Level: All
Intended Audience: Administrators, Design Thinkers, Faculty, Instructional Support, Training Professionals, Technologists, Researchers, All Attendees
Special Session Designation: For Educators at Community Colleges, Focused on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB), For Educators at HBCUs, For Leaders and Administrators
Location: Zoom Room 1
Track: Learning Design, Instruction, and Open Pedagogy
Session Type: Featured Session
Institution Level: Higher Ed, K-12, Industry, Government
Audience Level: All
Intended Audience: Administrators, Design Thinkers, Faculty, Instructional Support, Training Professionals, Technologists, Researchers, All Attendees
Special Session Designation: For Educators at Community Colleges, Focused on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB), For Educators at HBCUs, For Leaders and Administrators