Dr. Elizabeth Díaz Rodriguez, BS Biology Education (Cum Laude), Master in Science Teaching (Summa Laude), Doctorate in Instructional Design, research mentor in MSP project to students and teachers, 2017 Award with the article Sublevación, author of several articles, lecturer professor. Teaching and learning servant: Higher education (August 2006), a schoolteacher (August 1974) speaker, research mentor, writer, editor, instructional designer.
Dra. Lizbelle De Jesús-Ojeda Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Ciencias Médicas
La Dra. Lizbelle De Jesús-Ojeda es profesora adjunto en el Recinto de Ciencias Médicas de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Asimismo, funge como Coordinadora de Educación a Distancia en la Maestría Post doctoral en Investigación Clínica y Traslacional y como Co-Coordinadora del Centro para la Investigación, Empresarismo y Colaboraciones Científicas del Proyecto Título V. Además, posee una maestría en computación educativa y un doctorado en educación con especialidad en tecnología educativa y educación a distancia.
La doctora De Jesús-Ojeda se ha destacado en el campo de la educación a distancia lo que le ha permitido colaborar en diferentes iniciativas tanto locales como nacionales. Igualmente, ha sido co-autora en varias presentaciones orales y de carteles científicos en conferencias profesionales a nivel nacional.
Dra. María del R. Medina Díaz Catedrática Universidad de Puerto Rico Recinto de Río Piedras
Catedrática de la Facultad de Educación del Recinto de Río Piedras de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Dicta cursos de Métodos de investigación en la educación, Evaluación de programas, Evaluación en la sala de clases, Construcción de instrumentos y Teoría de la medición en el Departamento de Estudios Graduados. Obtuvo su grado doctoral en Psicología Educativa, en el programa de Métodos Cuantitativos, en la Universidad de Wisconsin-Madison. Posee un grado de Juris Doctor y una maestría en Investigaciones Pedagógicas de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Fue Maestra de Matemáticas en la escuela Rafael M. Labra y Presidenta de la Asociación Puertorriqueña de Maestros de Matemáticas. Ha escrito críticas de pruebas en el Buros Mental Measurement Yearbook y artículos sobre evaluación del aprendizaje, validez y construcción de instrumentos en Applied Psychological Measurement, El Sol, Pedagogía, Revista de Educación de Puerto Rico, Alteridad, Revista Jurídica de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Boletín de la Asociación Puertorriqueña de Maestros de Matemáticas e INEVA en Acción. También es autora del libro Construcción de cuestionarios para la investigación educativa. Es co-fundadora y Presidenta de la Sociedad Puertorriqueña de Evaluación. Estudiosa e investigadora de la evaluación del aprendizaje y de programas y la integridad académica en las instituciones educativas.
Dra. María del R. Medina Díaz Catedrática Universidad de Puerto Rico Recinto de Río Piedras
Catedrática de la Facultad de Educación del Recinto de Río Piedras de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Dicta cursos de Métodos de investigación en la educación, Evaluación de programas, Evaluación en la sala de clases, Construcción de instrumentos y Teoría de la medición en el Departamento de Estudios Graduados. Obtuvo su grado doctoral en Psicología Educativa, en el programa de Métodos Cuantitativos, en la Universidad de Wisconsin-Madison. Posee un grado de Juris Doctor y una maestría en Investigaciones Pedagógicas de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Fue Maestra de Matemáticas en la escuela Rafael M. Labra y Presidenta de la Asociación Puertorriqueña de Maestros de Matemáticas. Ha escrito críticas de pruebas en el Buros Mental Measurement Yearbook y artículos sobre evaluación del aprendizaje, validez y construcción de instrumentos en Applied Psychological Measurement, El Sol, Pedagogía, Revista de Educación de Puerto Rico, Alteridad, Revista Jurídica de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Boletín de la Asociación Puertorriqueña de Maestros de Matemáticas e INEVA en Acción. También es autora del libro Construcción de cuestionarios para la investigación educativa. Es co-fundadora y Presidenta de la Sociedad Puertorriqueña de Evaluación. Estudiosa e investigadora de la evaluación del aprendizaje y de programas y la integridad académica en las instituciones educativas.
Dr. Marcos Torres, IR Certificate Inter-American University of Puerto Rico-Ponce Campus
Dr. Marcos Torres-Nazario teaches online and face-to-face courses of statistics and research, at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico (IAUPR) Ponce Campus. He received the degree of Doctor of Education in Educational Administration from the Inter American University Metro Campus. Also completed a Post Master Certificate in Institutional Research from Florida State University. In 2013 completed a Master Degree in Research and Evaluation at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. During the Summer of 2015 completed the ELearning Expert Certificate from FATLA.
Heather Craig Alonge, Ph.D. is dedicated educator with over 13 years of teaching experience in higher education administration and executive leadership. Dr. Alonge has extensive experience serving as the chair of the public health program and managing a faculty body of 60+ while overseeing a bachelors, masters, and doctoral program. Dr. Alonge currently serves as core faulty for the DHA program at Walden University where she teaches, mentors, and works with curriculum development and improvement.
Thomas A. Clobes, Ph.D. California State University, Channel Islands
Thomas A. Clobes, Ph.D. is a Lecturer in the Health Sciences program at California State University Channel Islands, a Hispanic Serving Institution. He holds a Ph.D. in Health Sciences from Rutgers University. Dr. Clobes spent over 20 years in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, bringing relevant real-world experience to the classroom. His research focuses on perspectives and attitudes towards the use of medical cannabis and how they shape health policy. He also works with patients seeking cannabinoid therapy to guide them through their treatment. Dr. Clobes serves on the Board of Trustees for Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, a medically supervised camp for children with cancer and their families.
Dr. Víctor M. Concepción Santiago Graduate School of Education Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Arecibo campus
Víctor M. Concepción Santiago is professor of the Graduate School of Education of the Inter American University of Puerto Rico Arecibo Campus. He Teaches courses in Research in Education, Clinical Practices in Management and Leadership, Curriculum Development and Teaching and Leaning Strategies, focusing in Active Learning Approaches. He is also Academic Program Assessment Coordinator of the Arecibo Campus for the study quantitative and qualitative data results to analyze student learning outcomes. Víctor is also member of the Board of Directors of Puerto Rico Affiliate of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (PRASCD). At PRASCD he organizes professional development activities for teachers and school leaders.
Author: Beth Counihan Department of English, Queensborough Community College-CUNY
Author Note: I have no known conflicts of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Beth Counihan, Queensborough Community College-CUNY, 222-05 56 Ave, Humanities 428, Bayside, NY 11364. Email: bcounihan@qcc.cuny.edu
Introduction
As the world begins to emerge from the Covid-19 Pandemic, college faculty are ever more mindful of the high cost of textbooks and other necessities of student life. Assigning open educational resource (OER) texts lightens the financial burden and helps contribute to a more equitable campus. Faculty also need to have in our pedagogical tool boxes strategies that work well both in the traditional and virtual classrooms, as we now know we must be prepared for any situation. With this in mind, I would like to share the promising findings of a qualitative study a colleague and I conducted pre-pandemic, in Fall 2018 with our ENGL101: Freshman Composition students, one that suggests further inquiry. We assigned an open educational resource, Flesh-Kincaid Readability Statistics, to complement our work teaching college reading and writing skills. Our limited data, the students’ own writing, indicated that using Readability Statistics supported the skill of revision in particular.
At our urban public community college, seventy-three percent of our students received full financial aid the semester of our study (QCC Fact Book 2020). We serve a highly diverse student body with no one dominant group. In addition, our community college is a designated Hispanic-Serving Institution and HETS member institution, with Hispanic students or their families largely from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Ecuador. Our students each have access to a free subscription to the New York Times–paid through student activity fees, so there is no out-of-pocket expense. I assign the New York Times as a required text in all levels of my English courses. We read articles pertaining to our course topics, but also I assign students to read and write summaries of articles of their own choice, each according to their own interests. Students interested in video games and smart phone technologyread and summarize articles in the Times Personal Tech section, for example. Students concerned about equity and social justice read and summarize articles about racial reckoning and immigration issues.
To reinforce our classroom work on academic writing revision strategies, I assign students to use OER sites like readable.com (although not all features on the site are no-cost). Students paste their summaries into a text box on the site and the Flesch-Kincaid Readability Statistics program is applied, giving students an immediate measurement of the grade level of their writing. As students revise their New York Times article summaries in readable.com, they can see the grade level rise in real time. They see how the grade level rises when they are strategic and mindful about revision, with most studentswho participated in our study in Fall 2018 seeing an increase of two grade levels in their revised summaries.
Dr. Brenda Lee Morales holds a Bachelor’s Degree in General Elementary Education from Universidad del Turabo in Puerto Rico. A few years later he completed a Master’s degree in Educational Administration at the same institution. In 2016, he completed a PhD in Educational Leadership at Keiser University where he had already earned a Specialist in Education degree. Finally, in the academic aspect, Dr. Morales holds a Post- Doctorate in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Walden University. She is currently doing another Post-Doctorate at Walden University in the Human Resources area. In terms of work and professional career, she has 27 years of experience working in the field of education in several positions as a teacher, Curriculum Specialist, Director of Federal Educational Proposals, Academic Dean, among others. He has worked at all levels of the education system in Puerto Rico, from Head Start to High School and at the university level. Eleven years ago she began as Director of Federal Proposals and Professor of University Institutions, and currently serves as Title V Graduate Project Director at Universidad Ana G. Méndez – Gurabo Campus in Puerto Rico. She is also working as a graduate professor in the Educational Graduate Program Master and PhD Degree at Keiser University.
