Governance / Open Educational Resources Committee Meeting: April 15, 2021

Open Educational Resources Committee Meeting: April 15, 2021

Zoom / Conference Call

Members Attending: Annette Alvarado (Loyola University Chicago), Anne Chernaik (College of Lake County), Dan Matthews (Moraine Valley Community College), Elizabeth Nelson (McHenry County College), Anne Shelley (Illinois State University), Susan Shultz, co-chair (DePaul University), Janet Swatscheno, co-chair (University of Illinois Chicago), Chris Sweet (Illinois Wesleyan University)

Member Absent: Michelle Oh (Northeastern Illinois University)

Staff Attending: Elizabeth Clarage, Nicole Swanson

Board Liaisons Attending: Karen Janke (Erikson Institute), Jacob Jeremiah (Oakton Community College)

Tasks Assigned

  • Anne S. - take minutes.
  • All – Register for April 22 OER Office Hour session. https://www.carli.illinois.edu/carli-oer-office-hours-focus-oer-challenges
  • All – Let Elizabeth know if you have someone specific to recommend for the OER Committee.
  • Nicole and Elizabeth – approach certificate program attendees to teach OER Virtual Course.
  • Nicole and Elizabeth – send a question to the CARLI-OER listserv about textbook adoption deadlines at people’s institutions.
  • Sue and Janet will create a draft annual report and share with committee in time for May meeting.
  • For May meeting agenda:
    • Discuss scheduling dates for future Virtual Course offerings.
    • Discuss setting future date(s) for OER Faculty Workshop.
    • Discuss other continuing education programming. Come with ideas so we can implement in fall semester.

Decisions

  • March minutes were approved.
  • Committee decided that the OER Course registration limit should be kept relatively small so that all attendees are able to participate during each session. To meet demand, the course will be offered often. CARLI will tap those that attended the OEN Certificate in OER Librarianship to be instructors along with committee members.

Announcements

  • Member Announcements:
    • Anne Chernaik announced that College of Lake County now has a faculty fellow affiliated with their Teaching and Learning Center who focuses on OER.
    • Sue announced that DePaul University Libraries’ OER working group is meeting with their bookstore next month to lay groundwork for starting an official relationship with the library. The working group plans to do something similar with the DePaul Student Government Association in the fall.
    • Anne Shelley reported on a textbook affordability research project that is underway at Illinois State. The project is tied to the CARLI Counts program. The project team has purchased e-books that are being used as textbooks in several spring 2021 classes and plans to measure student and faculty experiences.
  • CARLI Announcements:
    • Nicole highlighted some upcoming programs that are part of the Professional Development Alliance offerings: Fair Use Game Show, Striving for Excellence, and a 3D Printing Series.
    • Elizabeth announced that CARLI is moving forward with year 2 of its ebook program with Wiley and Oxford.

Discussion

  • Call for Committee Volunteers (https://www.carli.illinois.edu/governance/volunteer#overlay-context=governance/volunteer)
    • Nicole sent an e-mail to the CARLI-OER list asking for volunteers.
    • Lots of committee vacancies because of no call for volunteers for committee members in 2020.
    • Current committee members are welcome to continue if they would like but do need to volunteer.
  •  CARLI Virtual Course: Understanding and Promoting Open Educational Resources
    • Current Sessions:
      • Option 1: Wednesdays: April 28, May 5, May 12 (instructors: Anne Shelley/Chris/Elizabeth/Nicole)
      • Option 2: Thursdays: April 29, May 6, May 13 (instructors: Anne Chernaik/Annette/Elizabeth/Nicole)
      • Registration is full with waitlists.
      • Future plans?
    • Twelve people total on waitlist
    • Because waitlist is so big, do we keep enrollment small or add more registrants to each section?
    • Do we ask for participant feedback about the size of the course? Answer: one of the goals is to build community, how did we do? Not a lot of responses to that question from participants.
    • Classes already feel tight on time, adding more people might magnify that and make it harder for everyone to participate.
    • People may feel less comfortable participating if the group gets larger.
    • If we don’t increase enrollment, does that mean the committee continues to offer the course on a regular basis?
    • People seem to have more time at the end of fall and spring semesters.
    • Expecting drop off, question about how many workshops we’ve offered. Answer: six total.
    • Committee needs to think about time we dedicate to this, what are we kept from doing?
    • Ask others who have attended or have gone through the OEN Certificate Program if they would like to teach? Positive response.
    • What are the job responsibilities of the attendees so far? One example – liaisons are attending who want to talk more with their faculty about OER, as opposed to just OER point people attending. Answer = mix of OER point people, liaisons, directors.
    • It would be good to offer this regularly if people are attending just to learn more about OER.
    • Consensus on keeping classes small, offering more, and asking certificate attendees to teach.
  • OER Faculty Workshop  
    • How often should this be offered?
    • Most recent session had 94 people registered.
    • CARLI has received a question from a library dean about when this would be offered again.
    • If people are going to attend and write a review, we can’t track participation if people just watch a recording.  To date, the session recording is offered to people who registered but can’t attend the whole workshop.
    • Elizabeth is creating reports from survey data to send to participating institutions.
    • Stipend seems to make a difference. One institution offered a stipend, and 11 people wrote reviews (about 1/3 the number of people registered). Compared to 1 out of 11 who didn’t get a stipend and wrote a review.
    • Recording has had 183 views, higher than other recorded topics.
    • CARLI is willing to continue giving this workshop but wants some support from OER Committee.
    • Discussion about ideal times to offer this workshop.
    • Suggestion to work around textbook adoption deadlines, would need to figure out CARLI member deadlines for textbook selection. How do we get that information?
      • Committee decided to send an informal poll to the CARLI OER email list to gather this information before deciding timing of future workshops.
  • OER Open Office Hours
  • Other Continuing Education Programs?
    • Open Office Hours – holding as a series with revolving topics.
    • Bringing in presenters who are not in the state, add to Professional Development Alliance (example – such as an open pedagogy project presentation by Robin DeRosa).
    • We have an opportunity to develop next-level OER, take basics and build on them – more advanced topics offered once.
    • Workshop on OER Commons Hub, authoring tool; maybe the hub coordinators could help develop.
    • Demonstrated interest in authoring OERs based on survey responses.
  • Committee Annual Report (due end of May; May 31 is Memorial Day, so may want to plan to finish earlier) – Overview of the committee’s work for the year.
    • Sue and Janet will create a draft and share with committee in time for May meeting.
    • Some activities to include: Workshops, Virtual Course, Open Ed week articles, gathering feedback from participants
  • Open Illinois Hub on OER Commons

Next Meeting and Deadlines

The OER Committee will meet on May 20, 2021 from 1-2pm.

  • Programming:
    • CARLI OER Course: Understanding and Promoting Open Educational Resources
      • April 28, May 5, and May 12
      • April 29, May 6, and May 13
    • OER Office Hours: OER Challenges
      • April 22, 2021