Authors

Theresa Huff

Positionality Statement

I think about OER design much like I think about gardening. Before planting anything, I need to spend time looking at the land, noticing what is already growing, testing and improving the soil, and designing with care for the long run. In OER, that means learning about the people, context, barriers, strengths, and possibilities that shape how a resource will actually be used.

I come to this work as a cisgender heterosexual woman, living with anxiety and trauma — experiences that directly shape my research and my thinking about safety, pacing, care, feedback, and voice in learning environments. I believe in being awkward, brave, and kind (thank you, Brene Brown), and I value curiosity, play, time, reflection, and learner voice.

I also recognize that some of my identities carry significant privilege. I am white, middle-class, well-educated, and well-traveled, and in many spaces, I pass as neurotypical, and that may shape which barriers I notice, and which ones may remain invisible to me. Many students and faculty who use this handbook may not share those experiences and may face barriers I have not faced. In part, it is OER’s inherent openness — its invitation to revise, adapt, and build upon — that drew me to this work. A resource that is licensed to be changed embodies humility and the capacity to rethink, which are, after all, exactly what we ask of our learners and owe to each other. My goal is not to create a perfect or neutral resource, but to create one that is transparent and designed with care to help others do their own work in ways that fit their learners, contexts, and communities.

Profile

Theresa Huff is an Assistant Professor of Education at Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri, where she teaches courses in literacy, instructional design, learning theory, and teacher preparation. She holds a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership, Instructional Design & Technology from Idaho State University, where her dissertation examined the efficacy of multimedia principles in reducing anxiety in online learning environments.

Her research sits at the intersection of instructional design, learner experience, and emotional safety in online spaces, with a particular focus on cognitive load, learner anxiety, motivation, and engagement. She extends this work through interactive OER design, accessible learning interfaces, and ethical AI integration, including serving as OER Instructional Designer on the project team that led eleven faculty teams across four institutions in creating DEIA-centered OER through the OER for Social Justice grant at Loyola Marymount University. Her work has been published in TechTrends and the OTESSA Journal, and she has presented at national and international conferences including AECT, OTESSA, OLC Innovate, and the Open Education Conference. She is an H5P Ambassador, an AECT Phil Harris Transformational Leadership Intern, an active leader within AECT, and a recipient of the Kole-McGuffey Prize for Research Excellence and the NATO Design and Development Finalist Award.

Before moving into higher education, Theresa spent nearly twenty years teaching in P–12 settings across grade levels and subjects — an experience that continues to ground her design work in the realities of real learners in real courses. She approaches her work through many lenses: as a mother and Oma, she thinks about what future users will need to access, afford, and use; as an avid explorer of ideas and places, she looks for room for curiosity, experimentation, and delight; as a scholar, she applies the research she reads and conducts; and as an instructor, she reaches for materials that are practical, adaptable, and inclusive.

Karna Younger

Positionality Statement

As an academic librarian and OER advocate I am driven by empathy and authentic learning. Having a neurological disorder, my hearing, speech, and language are impaired with an observable but “invisible” disability. Educators, colleagues, and strangers mistake my communication struggles for a lack of intelligence, sophistication, and more. Such judgements have fed my advocation to help others find their voices through inclusive learning and working environments. I am sensitive to when my identities as an educated, cisgender, heterosexual white woman as well as professional classification can empower me to help co-workers and students. Beginning with listening, we can empathetically formulate our individual privileges and disadvantages into collective assets. In higher education, affirming our collective voice can help us articulate more affordable and authentic educational experiences.

The open education movement is key to achieving such goals because it empowers individuals to join a chorus. Admittedly, like most millennials carrying college debt, the cost-savings mission of open education initially drew me to OER. But open pedagogy solidified my adherence because it gives students agency in their own learning. Building on my own experiential learning experiences as a journalism undergraduate, I aim to minimize the harm that may come from learning publicly. That is, I work with instructors to platform and validate students’ lived experiences and knowledge while respecting their educational, privacy, and intellectual property rights. By doing so, I hope students feel understood, respected, and confident in their ability to speak up.

Profile

After earning a bachelor’s in English literature and journalism studies and a master’s degree in history, I received my master’s in library science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A mid-career academic librarian who has been working in open education for over 10 years, I first fell in love with open education and open pedagogy by co-authoring Be Credible: Information Literacy for Journalism, Public Relations, Advertising and Marketing Students [Website] with Peter Bobkowski and a team of the best librarians at the University of Kansas. My research primarily focuses on open education, including the usefulness of OER to integrate information literacy.