The Vitality of Assigning Non-traditional Source Material

How can faculty support students when assigning nontraditional materials?

Katelyn Lewicky, Class of 2025

Published Spring 2025

Background

My name is Katelyn Lewcky (she/her) and I am a senior at American University in a BS/MS Marketing program with a Certificate in Disability, Health, & Bodies. I am passionate about merging themes from my Critical Disability Studies and Marketing coursework to form my own historically- and culturally-informed understanding of the business world. With this, I have also applied my unique perspective to analyzing the academic experience at American University (AU) through my work with the Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning (CTRL).

Following the academic trend towards diversifying source materials in collegiate classrooms, many professors at AU have begun to assign alternative sources in the classroom. But, what does this really mean and what benefits might it have for student learning?

What is a nontraditional source?

When researching this topic, one AU professor said to me: “An intersectional approach to learning requires decentering academic texts as the most legitimate sources of knowledge!” We had an engaging conversation about how ‘text’ has been institutionally withheld from individuals who are BIPOC, low-income, raised in proximity to the carceral system, and other disadvantaged groups throughout the course of American history. I believe it is important to note here that although these groups may now be liberated in the eyes of U.S. law, the persistent oppressive, colonial perspective upheld by many Americans perpetuates historic themes of harm throughout modern academia.

Understanding the history of text as a privileged medium, non-traditional sources are on the rise. This may look like any of the following, and more!

  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Documentaries
  • Guest Speaker Presentations
  • Blogs
  • Maps
  • Sheet Music
  • Magazines
  • Audiobooks

What benefits can students reap from interacting with non-traditional sources?

Interacting with non-traditional source material, both in addition to and in lieu of traditional academic text sources, has countless benefits for the student body at AU. While it is impossible to identify every benefit, below is a list of some key elements:

  • Understanding the Privilege Behind Text Mediums: In tandem with AU’s value of creating a socially well-informed student body, educating folx on why you choose to assign more than just “academic text” breeds room for conversations on assimilation vs. liberation.
  • Increased Accessibility: Capitalizing on the many ways that individual students best process information, the inclusion of various source modalities increases students’ understanding of assigned material. For example, a student who struggles with reading comprehension is likely to engage more meaningfully with an assigned novel if encouraged to listen to the audiobook version as desired. See my resource from Fall 2024 for more information on Anti-Ableism in Classroom, specifically at AU.
  • A ‘New’ Form of Engagement: Imagine you are a full-time undergraduate student today, being assigned over 100 pages of reading per class, per week; Wouldn’t you be excited to watch a video instead of reading for even one class? AU students across fields of study consistently express frustration with their workload and although this is difficult to mediate fully, faculty can support students’ active engagement with source material by assigning more than only text.

Tactical Advice for Implementing Non-traditional Sources

In order to balance students’ need to learn from contemporary (alternative format) sources and critically analyze text as a member of academia, the workforce, and society, faculty can set students up for success by:

  • Excerpting canonical text when necessary to be assigned. While it may be necessary to assign texts that are deemed foundational to a field, students can benefit from only reading excerpts of the original text which contain the most vital elements of the piece, particularly when there are concerns about excessive length.
  • Utilize University librarians when searching for appropriate source material to assign, and encourage students to do the same when conducting independent research.
  • Provide students with multiple source options for optimized flexibility, particularly for those students who may have only worked with text formats in the past. When students get to pick their own sources for an assignment, you may suggest they engage with alternative source material, such as attending a guest lecture, listening to a podcast series, or interviewing an expert in the field.
  • Remain wary of incidentally assigning students more source material when incorporating non-traditional sources into your curricula. Students are often overwhelmed by their workload, so it becomes important that faculty are replacing traditional academic text with meaningful non-traditional sources so as to not overburden students’ capacity.

Conclusion

It has been a great pleasure to compile this resource during my last semester of undergrad, particularly as an exercise in merging my knowledge in Critical Disability Studies and Business to formulate practical advice for AU faculty. From unpacking the colonial roots of text to seeing the tactical benefits of assigning alternative mediums, it is my hope that this resource brings about new student perspectives to the call for diversifying course materials. I hope that the contents of my work will be approached with an open mind at educators across AU and beyond.