This document summarizes a workshop on running effective open educational resource (OER) and open textbook initiatives in academic libraries. The workshop covered introducing OER and its benefits, developing advocacy strategies, and creating an action plan. Participants learned how to frame discussions around OER adoption, address common concerns, and develop SMART goals and tactics to advance OER on their campuses. The workshop emphasized sharing strategies and building connections to support OER efforts.
Running Effective OER and Open Textbook Programs at Your Academic Library: ACRL2017
1. Running Effective OER + Open Textbook
Initiatives in Your Academic Library
#ACRL2017 • #LIBOER
Nicole Allen and Sarah Faye Cohen
wifi: ACRL2017 pw: atthehelm
2. What will we do today?
• Learn the basics of OER and how to talk about it on campus.
• Explore how you’ll incorporate successful strategies into your own
OER strategy.
• Begin developing an action plan for your campus in order to
advance OER in your local context.
• Practice addressing stakeholders and challenging situations to
prepare you to address and overcome common challenges in
OER adoption.
3. How will we do this?
• By working together
• By sharing
• By listening
• By asking questions
• By building connections
• By trying new things
wifi: ACRL2017
pw: atthehelm
4. A few ground rules…
• Be present
• Be positive
• Participate fully
• Ask questions
• Support each other’s learning
6. Introductions Around the Room
• Who are you?
• What’s your home institution?
• What does OER look like at your institution?
• Or, what do you want it to look like?
• What are you hoping to learn today?
30 Seconds!
wifi: ACRL2017
pw: atthehelm
7. Break & Post-It Exercise
During the break, grab a post-it and answer the following question.
What is one thing you want to be more comfortable
addressing about OER / open textbooks before you leave
today?
wifi: ACRL2017 pw: atthehelm
39. “Thanks to the Z-Degree program
I didn’t have to choose between
continuing my education or getting
braces for my daughter”
- Melissa Koch, TCC Student
41. "This launched us in to a new
direction, allowing us to be
creative and unfettered in
developing course materials that
would meet the needs of the
students at our respective
colleges and that could also
be…freely and widely
distributed.”
Prof. Howard Miller
Mercy College
42. $1.3 million in student
savings by working with
faculty to adopt free & open
resources
43.
44. I wanted my students to gain hands on experience
managing a project… So I asked my students to
engage in a very large scale revise / remix project.”
- @opencontent
52. Activity: Make Your Pitch
Develop and practice ways to make the case for OER on your
campus.
53. Activity: Make Your Pitch
What are you doing?
• Create a message that combines data
& local stories that matter to your
audience.
• Identify and explore your audience.
Why are they important to address?
What matters to them? What do they
need to make a decision?
How to do it.
• Two groups per table.
• Use the data points on your
table.
• You will have 30 minutes to
create a pitch for this
audience.
• Select a spokesperson to
share the pitch.
54. Questions for Feedback
• Is the pitch calibrated to the audience?
• In what way does the speaker define the problem?
• How does the speaker combine data and a story in a compelling
manner?
• What steps might the audience take after hearing the pitch? Are
these the steps the speaker was hoping for?
• What is one way the pitch might be improved?
55. Lunch Until 1:15
Be sure to vote on the topics for what you want to know about using
post-its. Lunch is on your own.
56. Breakout Table Topics
• Building systematic, sustainable programs
• Buy-in and concerns with administration
• Faculty engagement
• Working with the bookstore
• I still need help with…
57. Breakout Table Instructions
Appoint Roles
•Facilitator
•Notetaker
bit.ly/ACRL-OER
Discussion Questions
With respect to your topic…
• What questions still need to
be answered?
• What steps can you take on
this when you get home?
63. Try not to overwhelm.
Don’t come to me with
the entire truth.
Don’t bring me the
ocean if I feel thirsty,
nor heaven if I ask for
light.
-from Olav Hauge’s
“Don’t come to me with the entire
truth,”
translated by Robert Bly
67. Common Questions
• They can’t be that good if they’re free, right?
• Is the quality the same as other textbooks?
• Are students learning using these resources?
• What about our campus bookstore? If we support this effort, won't
they go out of business?
• How do I find the time to adopt OER?
68. What’s your action plan?
Identify three steps you are going to take when you get back to
campus
bit.ly/liboer-action-plan
71. The Strategy Scale
• Create a climate where X is likely to do Y
• Persuade X to do Y
• Incentivize X to do Y
• Put pressure X to do Y
• Hold X accountable for not doing Y
72. The Strategy Scale
• Create a climate where X is likely to do Y
• Persuade X to do Y
• Incentivize X to do Y
• Put pressure X to do Y
• Hold X accountable for not doing Y
73. Tactics You Can Use
• Awareness Tactics
• Persuasion Tactics
• Incentive Tactics
Less than half of college students now purchase a current version of their assigned textbook – opting for older editions or unauthorized copies – down from 62% in 2010.
Book Industry Study Group (2013). Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education, Volume Three [press release]. http://www.bisg.org/news-5-815-press-releasestudent-response-to-digital-textbooks-climbs-says-new-bisg-study.php
Slide adapted from David Wiley’s deck, available under CC BY at https://www.slideshare.net/opencontent
These slides are also available at https://www.slideshare.net/thesheck
In most areas, we have so many resources available, we inundate people with choices. This is a first step in the right direction. Let them take it.
Find stories, ways of understanding the issues, responding to questions that YOU can do (not what you hear us doing or others doing)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/mishism/3081346310