CARLI Open Education Week 2023

The CARLI Open Educational Resource Committee is pleased to celebrate Open Education Week, March 6-10, by offering a series of free webinars, celebrating our successes, and inviting participants to share your OER Aspirations and Takeaways during Open Education Week.

Webinars

Please register for each of the webinars you wish to attend. Clicking on the program titles will take you to individual event pages where you can view additional details and register (2 clicks).  

Making Sense of "Affordable" Course Materials Models

March 8, 2:00-3:00 p.m. Central Time

Institutions are continuously hearing about new models and strategies for making course materials more affordable to students. The ever changing nature of technology and digital resources can make it hard to cut through the buzzwords and understand the real details of each “pitch” and the potential impact on students. Presenters Nicole Allen and Katie Steen-James, SPARC, will outline the facts and characteristics of common models to make course materials more affordable and untangle some of the arguments that come up in meetings with outside vendors. The goal is to help participants establish a deeper understanding of each model and develop effective strategies for engaging in discussions about these models on campus that center students and equity.

This session is open to staff, members, and invited guests of CARLI and the Professional Development Alliance. 

OER in Practice: A Faculty Panel Discussion

March 8, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Central Time

Faculty members from College of DuPage, Columbia College Chicago, and Moraine Valley Community College share their experiences implementing Open Educational Resources in their courses. 

Panelists include Jeanne Petrolle, Associate Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of English and Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago; Professor Joel Quam, chair of the Geography Department at College of DuPage; and Nicholas Hackett, associate professor of biology at Moraine Valley Community College.

Get to Know the New, Upcoming Illinois SCOERs Open Educational Resources

Please join CARLI and the Open Educational Resource Committee as we celebrate a series of programs highlighting the upcoming publications of Illinois SCOERs Round One awardees. The Illinois SCOERs awards are made possible because of a generous grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) and the United States Department of Education's Open Textbook Pilot Program. 

Program 1, March 6, 10:00-11:15 a.m. Central Time

Dr. Diana Zaleski from the University of Illinois Springfield discusses The Psychology of Exceptional Children, an OER textbook that will be used in undergraduate exceptional child courses. Ancillaries included with the textbook include a 3D printing assignment encouraging students to develop assistive devices and adaptive equipment.

Also, Dr. Karen Vuckovic from the University of Illinois Chicago with speak on Essentials of Pharmacology, an original open access textbook intended for nursing students using an innovative visual approach.

Program 2, March 7, 2:00-3:15 p.m. Central Time

Dr. Jacqueline Samuel from National Louis University will discuss her project Cultural Humility in Public Administration. The addition of Cultural Humility as lens for framing various approaches to Public Administration is what makes this text unique.

Health Sciences Librarian Amber Burtis, together with Professor Tim Davis from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, will outline Davis’ Anatomy and Physiology for Allied Health Professions.

Dr. Lonetta Oliver, Dean of Humanities at Illinois Central College will discuss Nurse Assistant Training. The OER focuses on nursing and elder care students, filling gaps that current texts do not address, such as life and soft skills.

Program 3, March 9, 12:00-1:15 p.m. Central Time

Dr. Barbara Anderson, the Head of the Instruction/Learning Library at Roosevelt University will elaborate on a collaborative project between Roosevelt University, DePaul University, and Harper College entitled Development and Implementation of Open-Access Problems and Activities for Health-Focused Chemistry Courses. The OER materials will be used for chemistry classes that are taught for nursing students as well as other health science majors.

Professor Juhelia Thompson from Morton College will elaborate on her work in the area of Diverse Approaches to Language Development, which educates students about the developmental stages of humans from a cognitive, physical, cultural, and biological perspective.

The Female Reproductive System and Women’s Health Through a Multidisciplinary Lens is a collaborative project between a Carle Illinois College of Medicine/ the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign team led by Dr. Samar Hegazy and Professor Judith Thorn, Associate Dean for Curriculum and Assessment at Knox College. This OER will serve as a hub for learning about the conditions affecting the female reproductive system and women's health throughout the lifespan from different perspectives.

Illinois SCOERs programs are made possible through funding from the U.S. Department of Education.

OER Success Stories

CARLI members across Illinois have been working to further OER initiatives on their campuses. Congratulations on your successes this year! 

• Bradley University' Cullom-Davis Library, partnering with the University's Center for Teaching Excellence and Learning, administered a pilot round of OER grants for faculty in Fall of 2022. Nine faculty across six departments (English, Family and Consumer Sciences, Biology, Accounting, Sociology, and Computer Science) attended OER workshops and adjusted their syllabi to replace commercial textbooks with OER and library resources, including in the high-enrollment ENG 101 class. There are plans to distribute another round of grants in Fall 2023. 

• Northwestern University Libraries is currently in the fifth year of our OER Faculty Grant Program. Since 2019, we’ve awarded 27 grants, saving an estimated 4,611 students $669K per year. In addition to continuing the grant program, we also recently obtained institutional access to Pressbooks, which will help to ensure the sustainability of OER creation and support into the future.

• University of Illinois Urbana Champaign has published 3 OER textbooks through our Library publishing arm, saving students at the University of Illinois and beyond from having to spend money on high textbook costs. The three textbooks are: Drug and Drug Misuse: A Community Health Perspective by Bazan et. al.; Instruction in Libraries and Information Centers: An Introduction by Saunders and Wong; and A Person-Centered Guide to Demystifying Technology by Wolske.

• CARLI Counts: Analytics and Advocacy for Service Development OERs including the Trainer Workbook, Getting Started Guide, and Participant Workbook will be shared at the CARLI Counts Curriculum Release Party on February 23.

To add your success story to this list, CARLI members please send your description to CARLI Support.

OER Aspirations and Takeaways 

Share on the OER Aspirations and Takeaways padlet what has inspired you during OpenEd Week! What have you learned? What great things are you planning?