The Iowa OER Awards recognize individuals and teams across the state who have done impactful and noteworthy open education work. The recipients of the 2025 Iowa OER Awards across our 6 award categories are highlighted in below.
Open Educator Award
Dr. Giovanni Zimotti; Marta Agüero Guerra;
Dr. Tamar Bernfeld; Fernando Castro Ortiz;
Dr. Jiménez; Eden Jones, PhD; Dr. Kingsbury Brunetto;
Dr. Rachel Klevar; Pilar Marcé, PhD;
Dr. Olivares-Cuhat; Professor Claudia Pozzobon Potratz;
Dr. Leslie Smith; Luke Whitaker
University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa, Northwestern University, University of Nebraska Lincoln, & Missouri Southern State University
Led by Dr. Giovanni Zimotti and with the goal of creating open educational resources for his Spanish Program at Iowa, this team of professors and researchers has been collaborating and writing OER textbooks since 2018. They envisioned their first OER in response to publisher limitations and pedagogical misalignment. Since then, they have created six textbooks (four published, two in progress) and over 100 videos, including many interviews with Iowans. Their entire curriculum is now fully open, flexible, and informed by research. Students save over $100,000 per semester thanks to these materials.
Open Pedagogy Award
Melissa Kleinschmit, PhD
Chelsea Clegg, PhD
Northeast Iowa Community College
Drs. Kleinschmit and Clegg have worked with their students to develop websites that share information about key biology concepts covered in their classes. The first site contains lecture notes, PowerPoint presentations, and student-selected sources for review, supporting learners throughout their time in the course. A key focus of the second site is to enhance students’ understanding of the subject matter while fostering responsible engagement with AI and other sources.
OER Creation Award
Melanie Bloom,
Sioux Central High School
Melanie Bloom led a team of high school teachers from four different states to develop an open curriculum that was teacher-driven and locally tested. Their work, the BEESTINGZ curriculum, contributes to science education in applied settings that serve local communities. At every stage of this project, Melanie considered the needs of teachers and the students. The final curriculum includes seven lessons along with teacher materials, student materials, and Google Classroom integration. The project began at 18 schools across 4 states. Now that the curriculum is shared as an OER, it has the potential to impact students around the world.
Supplementary Materials Award
Dr. Amber Anderson,
Iowa State University
Dr. Anderson has led several OER projects at Iowa State University. She is currently leading a group of faculty across her department to develop instructional materials for use across the core Agronomy curriculum at Iowa State, including textbooks, labs, and case studies. These OER will be valuable for students who may have taken introductory courses elsewhere, taken a break in their schooling, or need extra support, setting them up for success. External to ISU, Amber has also led the development of a new edition of “Soil Judging in Iowa,” an Iowa-focused soil evaluation manual used for high school contests, and soil science instructional materials for Iowa septic installer and county sanitarians.
OER Adaptation Award
Dr. Nichole Zumbach Harken, Dr. Deb Dimond Young,
Sadé Barfield, & Scott Bredman
University of Northern Iowa
While seeking adaptable materials that fit their innovative teaching styles and course sequence, these four dedicated instructors edited the best of seven existing OER into the Cornerstone OER collection. The motivation for this project came from a desire to remove cost barriers for students and to intentionally align course materials with objectives. Because Cornerstone is a sequence of two courses in a cohort model, it includes both composition/rhetoric and public speaking content. This adaptation replaces two courses’ worth of commercial texts with one cohesive textbook, supporting hundreds of students each year.
OER Adoption Award
Heather Schaffner,
University of Northern Iowa
Dr. Schaffner has actively transitioned nearly all her courses to free materials, including OER and library-licensed materials. Known as a student-focused instructor who teaches both introductory (non-major) and advanced courses, it is fitting that Prof. Schaffner was one of the inaugural award recipients for UNI’s Textbook Equity Student Advisory Board this year. Her OER adoption is a natural extension of her thoughtfulness about student needs, including financial barriers they may face.