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SCELC Webinar: OER Programs at Private Liberal Arts Institutions

Detail
Meeting
Oct 25 2018 -
12:00pm to 1:00pm

2018-10-29 Update: Presenter slides are now available for download below! We've also archived the video file (.MP4; streaming copy still available here).


Webinar Description

The Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC) invites you to spend lunchtime on Thursday of Open Access Week learning about Open Education Resource (OER) Programs at Private Liberal Arts Institutions.

In the last 30 years, textbook costs have risen by over 800%1. Twenty-seven states across the U.S., including California, have passed some form of textbook affordability legislation2. In response, OER programs have erupted at public colleges and universities across the nation. Private liberal arts institutions have been slower to create programming to address textbook affordability issues, and this panel highlights library-faculty partnerships in three such programs--at Abilene Christian University (Abilene, TX), Macalester College (St. Paul, MN), and University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA).  

Abilene Christian University

Abilene Christian University received an initial funding of five $1,000 grants from their university Provost Office for faculty to utilize Open Access textbooks and OERs in courses for Fall 2018. The ACU Library and Innovation Foundry selected faculty for the grant and are providing support to the faculty as they are working on their courses and administering the grants. Librarians are assisting faculty with locating OERs and open access textbooks for faculty to consider using and their Innovation Foundry are administering the grant and working with faculty to integrate the open educational resources into their Canvas LMS. Art & Design faculty member Trey Shirley has utilized Khan Academy and parts of other open educational resources in his Art History course that has benefited his students financially and kept them engaged in the content of the course.

Macalester College

Macalester College will talk about steps taken to build their OER program over the last three years and will briefly share some of their successes and failures.  After a quick overview of some of OER textbook authoring projects currently underway on their campus, Educational Studies faculty member Sonia Mehta and librarian Ron Joslin will talk specifically about the work that Professor Mehta is doing to author an open textbook for her global education course and the re-design of her course that has resulted.  They will discuss the resources put into place to support faculty on their campus engaged in an OER project highlighting such things as the expanded hands-on workshop set up to introduce faculty to OERs and the possibilities that they provide as well as a faculty stipend program which provides startup funding for OER projects.

University of the Pacific

At the University of the Pacific, faculty grants to produce and implement OER in the classroom started in the summer of 2017. Doug Risser, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, is one of the first 10 faculty to receive a grant and Michele Gibney is one of the University Libraries staff members who helped to administer and shepherd the grantees over the summer. They will discuss the initial summer pilot, covering the grant application process, faculty support, OER creation process and implementation, results from the classroom, and subsequent steps to cement the culture of OER at the institution.

Citations:

  1. Perry, M.A. (2012). The college textbook bubble and how the “open educational resources” movement is going up against the textbook cartel. Retrieved from http://www.aei.org/publication/the-college-textbook-bubble-and-how-the-o...

  2. Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. (n.d.). OER State Policy Tracker. Retrieved from https://sparcopen.org/our-work/state-policy-tracking/

Webinar Registration

The webinar is on Thursday, October 25, 2018 from 12:00pm to 1:00pm Pacific Time.

The event is a free webinar, but we are limited in the number of attendees able to simultaneously join the livestream. A recording will be made available shortly after the webinar ends. Please RSVP below using Eventbrite. SCELC Staff will send attendance links through Eventbrite messaging.

If you do not receive your attendance information by Monday, 10/22/18, please send a message through our Contact Form.