41 SPEC Kit 351: Affordable Course Content and Open Educational Resources
Positions Some time
each month
Some time
each week
Significant time
each week
Some time
each day
Significant time
each day
N
Position 1 16 9 5 5 4 39
Position 2 18 10 3 2 5 38
Position 3 20 8 4 1 2 35
Position 4 19 6 1 3 0 29
Position 5 13 4 2 1 0 20
Total Responses 32 22 11 6 7 39
29. Please briefly describe ways that library staff have successfully engaged faculty around affordable
course content/open educational resources issues. N=26
“Some time each month” is probably overstating. We have had a few meetings to discuss this. Library
staff have not engaged faculty around ACC/OER. We have referred to the UCI Extension/UCI Open.
Co-sponsored training for faculty and helping faculty identify OER resources.
Faculty are particularly receptive to the opportunity to shape library collections as they relate to
instruction, which is one of the options our initiative offers. They appreciate the flexibility of how they
can spend their award money and very much appreciate the speedy, personalized service the library
provides to identify, acquire, digitize, or otherwise make accessible course materials. Summary: the
most successful engagement strategy involves making it clear to potential applicants the amount of
hands-on assistance they’ll receive.
Faculty have attended several workshops on ACC and OER at the main campus and two of our regional
campuses. They are presented with the big picture: the problem of student debt and exorbitant prices
for commercial texts, information about what open means and Creative Commons licensing, hands on
with both online open textbooks as well as a few print versions (from OpenStax), and liaison librarians
have distributed our LibGuide amongst their faculty. This has resulted in one adoption, several very
interested faculty, and helped the library understand better what concerns the faculty have about these
materials. Our chemistry faculty will be using an open textbook for all entry-level classes starting in the
fall of 2016. That is 1850 students. Savings of over $500,000 in that semester alone. We actively promote
use of library e-materials for classes as well in these workshops and on our LibGuide.
Held information sessions. Met one-on-one with faculty. Sent mass emails. Responded to
faculty inquiries.
Held training sessions. Worked with faculty on grant-funded OER/ACC activities, particularly
identifying sources.
I am currently having conversations with faculty who are interested in publishing Open Textbooks and
will be supporting them in their efforts as part of a pilot project. We also hosted the Open Textbook
Network workshop, and about 20 faculty attended. Some of those are writing reviews for the OTL. Also
our business librarian has been identifying OER that could replace traditional textbooks that are being
used in high enrollment courses. She hasn’t gotten an adoption yet, but she’s hoping to speak with a
curriculum committee soon.
Liaison librarians were provided information about the pilot stipend program that they shared
with faculty. Research assistants have helped build a library guide and add faculty profiles of
those incorporating OERs into their courses. The lead faculty person and the Head of User
Services were interviewed about the OER initiative for a national blog article (http://blog.aace.
org/?s=hemminger&submit=Go).
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