Scholarly Communications spent the day making creative buttons with students at Friday Finish at Herman B Wells Library.
Friday Finish is a weekly event held on Fridays in Wells Library each fall and spring semester between 10am and 3pm. Students can participate in various games and activities while taking a break from studying or doing homework. The activities vary from week to week and usually involve different on campus organizations and off campus catered food.
Student Survey Results Showcase Rising Course Material Costs
On Friday, March 29, there were many activities available to students including arts and crafts activities such as making your own tassel key chain and Therapy Dogs, donuts and treats from Soma and pizza from Pizza X, and student’s had chance to get eclipse glasses! The Scholarly Communication Department participated in Friday Finish as one of these on campus resources by having an arts and crafts activity for students to decompress. Students were asked to answer a short survey on textbook costs to determine the impact of costs of educational materials for students at IU. In return, students received a 100 Grand (candy bar) and could participate in a button-making activity.
Over 82 students participated in the survey and were able to talk about lived experiences dealing with textbook costs on IU’s campus. Students who took our survey on average spend around $200 during the academic term on all textbooks and required course materials. The largest sum some students reported was as high as $1,700 for the Spring Semester! Some students explained they would take fewer classes or not register for a course because of the expense associated with a course.
70% of students said they were not able to use financial aid, scholarships, or grants to cover the full cost of course materials. We also asked students to consider ways they would potentially spend their money if they had not spent it on textbooks. The graphic below shows how students would spend their money with nearly half student’s surveyed choosing to spend it on cost-of-living necessities like food and bills.
After taking the survey, students could practice the 5R’s of OER (retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute) by participating in the button making process. Students were able to choose a button design, color it based on their preferences, and based on their vision, the button could represent the general concept that the button was originally designed for, or a new creative imagining of the student. An example would be the planet shapes: the abstractness of the planets let students’ creative sides run wild! Some saw the planetary nature of the design and continued with the original theming, while others created different designs— a chocolate chip cookie, a Pepsi logo, and so much more. The button making process highlights how collaboratory OER can be when we use the 5Rs. The 5Rs of OER is a general practice for how to make something Open and shareable (the 5Rs are Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix and Redistribute). Students who participated in the button making activity, revised and remixed open clip art designs by coloring them and adding their own creative interpretations, and these buttons were redistributed as students wore them and shared them with their friends during Friday Finish.
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