Sustainable Problem Solving: Reducing Barriers for OER Adoption
Date
2023-10-18
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Abstract
Open Education Global Conference 2023 (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) session description.
Are you thinking about new strategies or service models for helping educators find OER for their courses? At this presentation session (25 minutes), come learn about one approach a Canadian research institution has taken to help reduce hurdles faculty and instructors face when adopting Open Educational Resources (OER) into their courses. We will first highlight some of these barriers, followed by strategic services we provide at the University of Calgary’s Libraries and Cultural Resources (LCR) to reduce these barriers for educators. The first service we will discuss is providing an OER by Discipline Guide, an ongoing curated resource guide of OER organized by discipline for faculty who prefer to independently review previously evaluated OER within their subject area. Similar guides are commonly used across Canadian higher education institutions to curate potential OER organized according to their institution with access provided through Pressbooks. Pressbooks is a publishing platform based on WordPress used by many higher education institutions globally for developing, adapting, and hosting dynamic, interactive Open Education Resources. The second service strategy for supporting educators to adopt OER is the Open Course Materials Matching Service (OCoMMS). This service can be used by faculty who have either reviewed the OER by Discipline Guide and not found relevant OER on their subject, or by those who would prefer a more targeted service where library staff search for and curate potential OER relevant to their specific course. In order to support these services at LCR, we utilize the strengths and experience of our support staff as the strategies and practices for providing reference services are also similarly applied within the Open Course Materials Matching Service. We will highlight the benefits of having our support staff assist with OER finding services managed by the Open Education Librarian and our current service workflows. At the University of Calgary, this staffing model is a crucial piece in supporting the sustainability and growth of our OER services as interest in OER adoption continues to increase at our institution.
Description
Session outcomes and takeaways: By the end of this session, attendees should be able to…
1. Describe key barriers around adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) for educators in higher education.
2. Reflect on the service strategies used by Libraries and Cultural Resources for supporting the reduction of barriers to OER adoption.
3. Consider different staffing models for sustainable OER finding services within institutions.
During this presentation session, attendees will be engaged through the discussion and visualization of the OER adoption services and staffing model at Libraries and Cultural Resources, along with open dialogue and questions during the question-and-answer section of the presentation. Attendees will also have access to the resources supporting the services discussed that they may utilize and adapt for their own services at their institutions.
Keywords
Open Educational Resources, OER, Library services, Staff workflows, OER adoption, OER curation, Course materials
Citation
Adams, S., & Sillito, S. (2023, October 16-18). Sustainable Problem Solving: Reducing Barriers for OER Adoption [Conference presentation]. Open Education Global Conference, Edmonton, AB, Canada. https://oeglobal2023.sched.com/event/1S7np/sustainable-problem-solving-reducing-barriers-for-oer-adoption