Virginia's Academic Library Consortium

Links and Resources

Course Mapping Project

Goal

The goal of the VIVA Course Mapping Project is to support the discovery of Open Educational Resources (OER) aligned to Virginia courses. Recognizing that competing demands and time constraints present barriers to OER adoption for many instructors, the Course Mapping Project works to consolidate and align OER for high enrollment courses at Virginia higher education institutions.

Phase 1: Transfer Virginia

The first phase of the Course Mapping Project involved mapping OER to Virginia Community College System transfer courses through the Transfer Virginia initiative. The Course Mapping Project Task Force and ISKME curated and aligned OER to high enrollment transfer courses on VIVA Open, an OER repository hosted by ISKME.

Faculty Review

Once curation for a discipline was completed, the OER were reviewed by Virginia faculty to determine their suitability for the VCCS transfer courses using three indicators: the quality of the explanation of the subject matter, comprehensiveness, and cultural representation. A FAculty Reviewed seal was applied to the OER and standardized comments were shared in the item records. Faculty reviews of curated OER were an essential component to the project as instructors brought expertise and deep understanding of the curriculum and course materials that support student learning. The reviews also provided an opportunity for faculty from varying Virginia higher education institutions to engage with the materials and one another on their experiences reviewing OER.

Phase 2: Course Alignment Crosswalk 

Phase 2 project developments involved identifying equivalent courses at Virginia public 4-year and private non-profit institutions through the Transfer Virginia search tool, Where Will My Course Transfer. Course alignments for equivalent courses were added to the OER to widen the institutional representation, and the VCCS Transfer Course Mapping Hub on VIVA Open has been renamed the VIVA Course Mapping Hub.

Next Steps & Additional Resources

Planning the next steps for the Course Mapping Project is currently underway and includes updating the hub collections with new OER, as well as identifying and implementing strategies to increase engagement with the materials. A Course Mapping Companion Kit was developed to support VIVA member institutions interested in mapping OER to courses at their institutions. Please contact VIVA if you would like to highlight mapped OER on VIVA Open.