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KENNESAW, Ga. | Feb 10, 2020

The Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning of the University of Texas has recognized Italian Program faculty members Renata Creekmur, Federica Santini and Andrea Scapolo for their work in Open Educational Resources with awards as .

This recognition follows their creation of a comprehensive OER textbook for first-year Italian language and culture classes, which they completed thanks to an 2018/19  Textbook Transformation Grant: .

In November 2019, they co-presented their project, including strategies to successfully create OER for Italian courses, at , as "Using OER to Enhance Italian Language and Culture Classes."

The project has been well-received in the Italian Studies learning community. Among others, Dr. Lillyrose Veneziano Broccia, Director of the , stated that the "OER content, methods, and format are effective, welcoming, and inclusive in theory as well as practice. I can easily, and enthusiastically, envision this OER project being used by instructors and learners across the country just as they are. I also imagine this project serving as concrete inspiration and guidance to colleagues with the similar and necessary goals of removing obstacles from the path to language and culture learning – such as exclusive, non-representative, dated and expensive content."