Dr. Robert Hoople from SUNY-Oneonta presented a ten-minute recorded session at Open Ed 2021 entitled “Open Learning Initiative: An Open OER Learning Platform That Can Work For You.” Hoople has taught for over eleven years psychology and… many different LMSs! Wow. Hoople has written chapters of a psychology textbook. Hoople spoke about requesting access to the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) and using it in the LMS. OLI quizzes and checkpoints for each module were useful for Hoople, who teaches at five different universities! The toughest issues Hoople mentioned about OLI were mostly if there is no LMS integration. Hoople is interested in research to compare sections without a learning platform vs. OLI for examination grades to note the differences. One future presentation idea mentioned was the LMS comparisons. Hoople seemed very supportive of OLI, the low price (or free for SUNY system students), and the features such as the quizzes. The website is oli.cmu.edu and has several courses including student success modules. I did not know about OLI and just today purchased access for BIT 295 students to use the “How We Argue” course module. I am wondering how often we will include mini modules in the courses we teach moving forward!
