The Impact of Music on Health: Creating an OER
Ferol Carytsas, MM
Assistant Director & Lecturer, UF Center for Arts in Medicine
Background
In arts in health, artists are focused on practicing their art, not documenting and conducting research on the process. Over the years evidence-based research has advanced the field of arts in health, and a robust research base is being built. While the field has existed for years, there was not a textbook that addressed the breadth of content I wanted to cover in my Music and Health course at UF. The Music and Health course is a required course in the Undergraduate Certificate in Music in Medicine. In this course, students review music therapy and music in health research to assess how music can be utilized to enhance well-being, the intersections between music and psychology/cognition/human behavior, as well as health maintenance and medical challenges of performing artists.
After two semesters of receiving numerous student course evaluation comments about the readability of the textbook in use and the relevancy to the content that was being discussed in class, I decided that it was time to make a change. As a result, I began developing an OER textbook utilizing the Pressbooks platform. I chose the Pressbooks platform because I attended a workshop, “Pressbooks Jamboree,” through the UF Center for Teaching Excellence. The concept of an OER textbook was appealing because the cost of the course textbook jumped to over $100 which seemed unreasonable for an elective course.
As an educator, I recognized that students were writing well-developed research papers that only I as an instructor ever read. I wanted to share their work with a broader audience and became hooked on the concept of a textbook written by students for students. I began the project with the idea that I would serve as the overall editor, writing a few of the critical information chapters, but that ultimately much of the content would be contributed by students. My vision for the text was that it would serve as a living document that students would be able to update and add content to each semester.
My goal for this textbook was to enhance the student experience in three ways:
- The OER would remove external course fees.
- Students would be more engaged with the course because they would be activelycontributing to the content in real-time.
- Students would more closely relate to the course readings because they would bewritten by their peers.
My instructional goal was to wrap content into the course curriculum so reading material would more seamlessly support lectures, and I would be able to spend additional attention focused on creating a collaborative learning environment.
OER Learning Community
I was one of five faculty selected to participate in UF’s inaugural OER Learning Community. The learning community met once a month to discuss topics related specifically to various aspects of developing OERs, and these meetings were tailored to our individual needs. Based on where I was in the process of creating OER, I found the most value in guest lectures on directed topics. In the future, having a clear outline of the OER Learning Community’s expected deliverables and deadlines would be useful for planning purposes.
Developing the Textbook
Intellectual Property Rights
One of the early steps of this process was to determine what needed to be considered in terms of copyright, intellectual property rights, and privacy. I contacted UF’s library system which connected me with the Copyright and Open Educational Resources Librarian. UF General Counsel approved the following text for both copyright and FERPA purposes as the basis of the textbook agreement students would need to sign.
As the copyright holder for the attached materials, I hereby authorize the University of Florida to distribute and archive these materials via the Internet or successive technologies. This is a non-exclusive grant of permissions for on-line and off-line use. I understand that I retain copyright to my work and that it will be made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license, which allows others to copy and share the work for noncommercial purposes only.
Additionally, recognizing that edits to the textbook might need to be made over time, I included the following statement:
I grant permission for the content I provide to be edited to meet overall learning objectives, to provide consistency of terminology, to be combined with other author submissions while still maintaining authorship, content updates as necessary, or for formatting purposes.
Students had the opportunity to opt-in to writing a textbook chapter in the final assignment. Students could self-select completing a literature review or textbook chapters. If they chose the textbook option, I would request that they sign and return the textbook agreement via email. The textbook agreements are stored on Pressbooks in a private section of the textbook that only textbook administrators can access.
Textbook Content
I named this text, The Impact of Music on Health. The textbook chapters were intended to align with the weekly module topics in the syllabus. I kept the module topics broad so that students could address more detailed topics based on their individual interests within each subject area.
Assignment Instructions
The text of the assignment instructions was as follows:
Your chapter will most likely be a section within a larger chapter. The course requirement is 1500-2000 words. As long as you meet the minimum word requirement you will not be penalized for length. Be sure to incorporate the edits and suggestions from your peer reviewers prior to submission. As a reminder, the following structure for your paper is required:
- Objectives
- 3-5 objectives for your section (e.g. After reading this chapter, the reader will…).
- Please utilize Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs when writing your objectives.
- Introduction
- Introduce your topic, and identify and define any terms that are important to understanding.
- A glossary is being compiled, so include and bold terms and definitions that are important and specific to your topic.
- Literature Review
- In this section, discuss the sources that support your topic and thesis statement.
- This should not just be a summary of information from other sources but also a comparison and evaluation of information.
- For this paper, there are two different ways you can organize your discussion:
- Chronological: by date or by trend; organized around time.
- Thematic: by topic or issue; organized around themes.
- In this section, discuss the sources that support your topic and thesis statement.
- Conclusion
- In addition to a summary of the major themes, your conclusions, not those of others (that’s in the literature review), should be provided here.
- Include gaps in the current available research and a discussion on future areas of study.
- References
- APA format; in-text citations are also required.
- A minimum of 10 scholarly sources are required, 8 of which must be within the past 5 years.
- Please keep your sources as current as possible.
- Your sources should be based in music and health practice, not music therapy.
- A few more things…
- The audience will be students in the Music and Health course.
- Do not tell us what you know. Tell us what we should know.
- Make sure all your references are referenced.
- Figures, diagrams, and tables should be submitted on a separate sheet (make sure your last name header is on this sheet); you can make a comment in your paper that reads “insert Table 1.”
- If you include photos, make sure that they have Creative Commons licensing
- Make sure that each page has this header: (Last name, page number).
Results
Pilot Chapters
I began collecting textbook chapters from students in Fall 2019. In the Fall 2021 section of Music and Health, I was able to pilot five chapters. At the end of the term, I surveyed 19 students.
The five chapters that were piloted:
- Physics of Sound
- Music and Language
- Music Listening and Dementia
- Music and Emotional Intelligence
- Musicians and Surgeons: Artists United by their Craft
Survey Results
The survey results were as follows:
Q1: Did you read the Pressbooks Music and Health textbook assigned readings?
| Answer Text | Percent of Respondents Selecting This Answer |
| Yes | 89% |
| No | 0% |
| I’m not sure | 0% |
| I tried it, but could not access it | 16% |
Q2: I would have preferred to purchase a traditional textbook for this course.
| Answer Text | Percent of Respondents Selecting This Answer |
| True | 5% |
| False | 74% |
| No opinion | 21% |
Q3: I like that the textbook for this course is written by students instead of faculty.
| Answer Text | Percent of Respondents Selecting This Answer |
| Strongly disagree | 11% |
| Slightly disagree | 0% |
| Neither agree nor disagree | 26% |
| Slightly agree | 42% |
| Strongly agree | 21% |
Q4: I am proud of the work that I have contributed to this textbook.
| Answer Text | Percent of Respondents Selecting This Answer |
| I decided not to contribute to the textbook | 0% |
| Strongly disagree | 5% |
| Slightly disagree | 5% |
| Neither agree nor disagree | 0% |
| Slightly agree | 53% |
| Strongly agree | 37% |
Q5: I feel a sense of ownership being a contributing author to this textbook.
| Answer Text | Percent of Respondents Selecting This Answer |
| I decided not to participate | 0% |
| Strongly disagree | 0% |
| Slightly disagree | 5% |
| Neither agree nor disagree | 5% |
| Slightly agree | 42% |
| Strongly agree | 47% |
Discussion
The results of this survey indicated that 74% of students would prefer not to purchase a traditional textbook. The most interesting result was that only 42% slightly agreed that they liked the idea of having a textbook written by students. However, most students slightly or strongly agreed that they felt a sense of ownership as a contributing author to this textbook. And, most importantly, 53% slightly agreed that they felt proud of the work that they submitted.
Future Implications
The future of OERs as a cost-saving resource for students is promising. The ability to easily edit and revise is also attractive. My intention for the textbook is that it be a living document. It will need to be consistently updated to include current research in the field. As a result, the text needs constant attention to make sure that it is accurate and up to date which requires time. Additional content needs to be added to the textbook. In its current form the textbook is not ready to be shared with a broader audience. Lastly, additional research with a larger sample size and a revised survey is necessary to determine the effectiveness of this teaching tool.