Fostering Campus Partnerships that Support Adoption of Open Education Access Materials

In our 2020 OLC Innovate presentation entitled “Creator or Curator? An OER Decision-Making Strategy for Content Development in Online and Blended Courses,”  we mapped a process that faculty members could follow when deciding whether to use Open Education Resources (OER) content in their courses. Building on this model at the 2021 OLC Innovate Conference, we delved more deeply into this topic by reviewing selected open education resource (OER) collections in our presentation entitled “Supporting Faculty Adoption of Open Ed Access Materials Through MERLOT.” Inspired by feedback from conference participants hailing from a variety of higher ed job roles, we now propose an expanded focus that will explore the benefits of fostering campus partnerships to support the implementation of OER in service of high-quality course development and pedagogy.

Open education resources offer a vast and continuously expanding array of options and opportunities that inform creativity and excellence in teaching and learning across the disciplines, including both student- and faculty-developed content, as well as a wealth of publisher-developed content at free or reduced costs.  Freely available learning materials such as open texts, animations and simulations, collections, assessment tools, apps, and open online courses provide much-needed access and affordability for students, and they offer faculty a high degree of flexibility in shaping courses and curricula. In a nod to the growing prominence of OERs in the higher ed environment, 89% of the CIOs who participated in the 2019 Campus Computing Survey agreed that “OER course materials and textbooks will be an important source of instructional resources in the next five years.” Moreover, participating CIOs confirmed a six-year, steady rise in the number of higher education institutions with policies that “encourage faculty to use OER content for courses” and that provide “formal institutional support for OER course materials.” Nonetheless, only 43% reported that “faculty at my campus believe that the quality of OER course materials is about the same as comparable commercial products.” 

These results illustrate that enhanced institutional emphasis on OERs does not automatically lead to adoption, as some hurdles as well as hesitancies remain in faculty adoption. Faculty continue to express concerns about the quality as well as the availability of open educational resources, a trend that speaks to the value of  focusing on the processes and approaches that institutions can implement to encourage and support high-quality OER implementation.

In this presentation, we explore the importance of fostering collaboration between multiple institutional stakeholders (faculty, instructional designers, instructional technologists, librarians, and others) to create a sustainable approach to the integration and maintenance of OER. Recognizing that incorporation of OER can be a daunting task for individual faculty, it is essential to foster a collaborative approach that taps into the expertise of the campus community. Further, we discuss solutions to administrative hurdles, the influence of institutional context and structure, and the impact of institutional policies and procedures related to OER. Presenters will discuss recommendations for successful OER integrations applicable across the spectrum, including for individual courses as well as standardized curriculum and programs. 

The presentation will offer the following primary objectives for participants:

1. OER PARTNERSHIPS: Identify key institutional stakeholders essential for an effective collaborative approach to OER integration. 

2. OER IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES: Outline challenges and potential solutions inherent in OER integration and maintenance. 

3. OER IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLES: Explore the role of institutional context as it influences policies, procedures, and utility of OER. 

4. OER SOURCES: Cover a spectrum of OER content and resource providers (including MERLOT) selected as top tier recommendations from the presenters.

Takeaways and Engagement Activities: 

• All attendees will leave the session with a framework for bringing together relevant OER stakeholders at their institution. 

• The presenters also will develop and share a reference document listing high-quality, OER-related resources.

• Throughout the presentation, on-screen prompts will engage the audience with interactive feedback, and general questions will be solicited at the end of the presentation