Why I Switched From OER to a Webtext

When I first began teaching sociology at the University of Mississippi, I was especially careful preparing my first introductory course. I checked in with my new colleagues and reviewed as many textbooks as I could. I learned that none of my colleagues were particularly committed to or thrilled by any existing textbooks. They were informative but bulky. And even when they were updated to be “hip” or interesting, they seemed to fall flat.

I ended up picking one for my first semester but quickly found that many students weren’t reading the textbook, and there was little I could do to incentivize them or check how well they understood the material.

I wanted a textbook that would get students to

• think about how sociological concepts impact their day-to-day experiences,
• use empirical evidence to answer questions, and
• actually do the reading.

Soon after I started teaching, a grant from my university’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning gave me the opportunity to develop an introductory sociology course using Open Educational Resources (OER).

Over the following year, I reviewed a wide range of OER options. The experience, however, left me underwhelmed.

OER Doesn’t Cut It

On one hand, the sheer number of OER modules, chapters, lessons, and assignments was vast. But the quality was incredibly hit-or-miss. It would’ve required a Herculean effort to find quality options that included the content I needed to fit my teaching objectives and style.

I also encountered OER platform vendors eager to facilitate the process by providing curated content packages. Interestingly, despite being entirely “free” content created by others, these platforms incurred costs that didn’t seem justified. One vendor (which bankrolled my campus OER initiative) had a cost only slightly lower than a standard textbook. And the “package” content was very low quality. (Some of it was wrong, outdated, or questionable.)

So I cobbled together a truly free course using online articles and YouTube videos from sources like CrashCourse, PBS, and more.

This solved the cost problem, but it didn’t solve others. I still couldn’t be sure that students were reading or comprehending the material. And it introduced new problems: the videos and articles all had different editorial “voices.” They were created for different purposes and that made the course more of a content “mash-up” than a true textbook. As time progressed, some of the online material became outdated or less relevant, and there often wasn’t a better option around the corner.

When Soomo Called, I Answered

Around this time I received a call from Soomo. I first met them many years ago at a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) conference. I remember being incredibly impressed with their approach and philosophy to higher education. They asked if I would be interested in helping develop a new, interactive textbook (or webtext) for introductory sociology. I immediately said yes.

The experience working with Soomo to build a webtext from the bottom up left me even more impressed—particularly with their editorial model. If you’re familiar with the academic publishing model, you know scholars typically work in isolation (or with a handful of coauthors) to develop and produce a product, then pitch it to a publisher. Only then might the work go to peer review for evaluation and potential publication.

My Soomo experience was a breath of fresh air. Rather than asking me to start writing, Soomo organized weekly development meetings. We spent a long time discussing the overarching big ideas and what general approach we would take.

ASA Recommendations Shaped the Webtext

Throughout these early conversations, we reviewed the ASA guidelines and recommendations for introductory sociology.

The ASA recommends the Sociological Literacy Framework (SLF), developed by Ferguson, Carbonaro, and the Measuring College Learning Sociology faculty panel (2016). The SLF identifies a core set of learning outcomes for introductory courses, including key concepts and competencies students should be introduced to. This framework was instrumental in helping us determine the most essential concepts for students to grasp—and in shaping how we guide them toward that understanding.

Eventually, we settled on a set of big ideas that we would shape content around. I worked with Soomo’s team of learning designers to map out how each page in every chapter ultimately built toward the big ideas. It was nearly a year before I even started writing. Soomo’s willingness to commit time and resources to the careful development of the webtext was clear.

Soomo Built Assessments Directly into the Webtext

Throughout the writing process, we met weekly to discuss content and progress updates. Soomo’s editorial team did more than just look over drafts. They ensured content aligned with learning goals and outcomes, and they created three different types of built-in assessments. These include:

• embedded multiple-choice questions on every page to check student understanding and call attention to the important takeaways
• end-of-chapter quizzes where students apply what they’ve learned to a real-world scenario
• Follow the Data features, which appear in every chapter and give students the ability to interact with data to investigate sociological questions like “Which generation is the most powerful in the United States?” and “What can data tell us about increasing economic inequality in the United States?”

Of course, we’d always discuss the learning goals and outcomes of material before producing an outline, which also came before writing content.

I can say without a doubt that the careful, hands-on involvement of Soomo’s amazing editorial team made this webtext much better than it otherwise might have been.

Teaching with the Webtext Has Made My Courses Much Better

Over the past year, I piloted the webtext with my own students. This included large in-person sections, online sections, and a small honors section.

The first semester, we only had a handful of chapters completed, which allowed me to gather feedback from students about how the webtext compared to my previous OER material. The response that first semester was overwhelmingly positive, with one surveyed student writing, “I love how interactive the webtext is, I think it is by far my favorite way of learning.”

Obviously, I’m happy with the overall content and general approach. I helped produce it. But the “under the hood” components that come with the Soomo platform have made my courses much better.

The instructor-facing Analytics allows me to see how my students progress through the course. I can see if they’re struggling with a concept by checking their performance on assessments. Analytics also shows how much time my students spend on each page and chapter, which allows me to identify students drifting behind. When students spend a lot of time on a page, it might suggest I need to more carefully cover that area. If a student says the reading is confusing, I can point out they spent only two minutes on a page and can offer suggestions for how to improve their reading comprehension.

The Webtext Engages Students

The discussion boards throughout the webtext generate a lot of in-class conversation. Even though I don’t grade them, most students make at least one post to each prompt.

The Follow the Data activities in each chapter make data literacy a common through line. Students dig deeper into data related to a question or assumption that aligns with each major chapter topic.

The polls in each chapter compare student responses to the general population directly, which opens spaces for students to think about the issues in more nuanced ways.

Finally, students seem to love the short “People on the Street” videos that start each chapter. These are videos Soomo filmed that showcase a diverse range of perspectives on sociological topics.

My overall experience with Soomo has been incredibly positive, both as a writer collaborating on a webtext but also as an instructor using that webtext for in-person and online classes. I encourage you to check out the webtext for yourself.