Professor of Education Melissa Wells
College of Education Professor Melissa Wells and former faculty Courtney Clayton received the Virginia Open Educational Resource (OER) Impact Award for their text, Foundations of American Education: A Critical Lens.
Created in 2025, the award recognizes outstanding OER in Higher Education that have had a significant impact in Virginia classrooms. Since publication in 2021, the free online textbook has had over 190,000 visitors and over 430,000 page views. UMW education professors Janine Davis, Teresa Coffman, Christy Irish and Melissa Jenkins also made contributions to the text.