Elena Cotos, director, Center for Communication Excellence and associate dean for professional development, Graduate College, Iowa State University, was awarded a grant to develop Sustainable OER and AI-Based Infrastructure for Research Writing,
Hers was one of four affordable course materials proposals to receive first-round funding. The projects build sustainable infrastructure to support and develop open educational resources (OER) and immediate-access materials in undergraduate high-enrollment courses to ease textbook costs for students. This is a priority investment identified by President Wendy Wintersteen in the new Iowa State University Strategic Plan.
Her project aims to establish a sustainable infrastructure around two related Open Educational Resources (OER) for scientific writing: 1) Preparing to Publish e-book and 2) Research Writing Tutor, artificial intelligence (AI)-based software. Focusing on communicative strategies for effective scientific argumentation, both these OER are designed for use as materials in formal and informal learning contexts supporting the development of research writing competence. She foresees their use in graduate-level courses as readily accessible instructional or reference materials as well as materials for autonomous learning and practice. Campus-wide adoption of these OER aligns with ISU’s strategic aspirations and will contribute to attaining the success factors through innovation in curriculum and increased publication of research outputs.