The Asynchronous Cookbook

Introduction

This book is created based on the needs of students enrolled in the program. As students and faculty searched for affordable teaching resources to meet the needs of graduate teaching assistants, they found that it was not easy to find one resource that met their many needs. Over time program Introduction | xvii alumni and current students realized that they could write the book they sought to find. The group is excited about the opportunity to offer this textbook as an Open Educational Resource (OER) to allow all graduate students free access to the materials. It is exciting to see the twenty authors and two coeditors from the current and alumni of the GTS program sharing their experience from their graduate teaching and first employment opportunities. Each of these chapters comes from the experiences and expertise of these talented individuals who are excited to speak directly to their peers through their shared experiences and advice.

Now complete, the book will be used as a foundational resource for the GTS classes. The experiences of writing an OER item also generated interest in adding OER as an instructional topic to the program curriculum to assist scholars in learning about additional forms of scholarship and the use of OER in their future teaching plans. Other OER topics will include strategies for cocreating OER with undergraduate and graduate students and the economic value of using OER as an alternative to traditional course textbooks. As a new element of the GTS program, there are plans to develop a second volume of this book in two or three years to allow a new group of future students and alumni an opportunity to contribute new ideas and strategies to our collection.