Open Educational Resources Committee Meeting: August 26, 2021

Zoom / Conference Call

Members attending: Amber Burtis (Southern Illinois University Carbondale), Denise Cote (College of DuPage), Catherine Galarza-Espino (Morton College), Kim Hale (Columbia College Chicago), Dan Matthews, co-chair (Moraine Valley Community College), Christina Norton (Bradley University), Tineka Scalzo (City Colleges of Chicago), Janet Swatscheno (University of Illinois Chicago), Chris Sweet, co-chair (Illinois Wesleyan University), Tamara Townsend (City Colleges of Chicago)

CARLI Staff attending: Elizabeth Clarage, Anne Craig, Nicole Swanson

Board Liaison: Karen Janke (Erikson Institute)

Decisions

• June minutes were approved.
• Minute taking will be assigned via an alphabetical list and will be included at the end of each agenda. Amber Burtis will take minutes in September.
• Committee’s standing meeting will be the third Thursday from 1-2:30pm.
• Committee will discuss continuing education program schedule for the upcoming year at its next meeting.

Tasks Assigned

• Minutes taken by Dan Matthews.
• Committee members will be added to CARLI’s OEN Community Hub and Google Group. If members would prefer to use a different email than their institutional email for this, send an email to Elizabeth and Nicole.
• Elizabeth and Nicole will ask about the text of the grant proposal for the Department of Education.

Announcements

• Member Announcements:
  • Christina Norton (Bradley): Gave a presentation at a faculty forum. She now has 3 faculty sign up for OER news article.
  • Denise Cote (College of DuPage): College faculty have published an Introduction to Electronics textbook, and ancillaries are being developed. They have also published books on Constitutional Law, Group Dynamics for Human Services,
  • and Geography on Western World (GIS students made the maps). College funded this work.
  • Amber, Cathy, Christina, and Tineka are participating in the OEN Certificate in OER Librarianship. Chris and Dan are past participants of the certificate program.
  • Dan Matthews (Moraine Valley CC): IACRL Conference & Continuing Education’s next SPARK event will center on DEI in OER. If committee members are interested, they are strongly encouraged to present. Look for a call for proposal in the coming weeks.
• CARLI Announcements:
  • ALMA migration: Continuing to learn alongside everyone implementing how to make it all work.
  • Review of information for the Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot Project grant:
    • CARLI received $1 million, and submitted a revised workplan to reflect the reduction in award which includes.
      • Keeping grant staff
      • Having the maximum amount that subgrants can be awarded be $60,000
      • Most of $1 million is used for the subgrants
      • DoE emphasis is on student savings which is why we are keeping the same number of textbooks.
    • More about applications for subgrants are coming in the next couple months.
      • Grant proposal is to create 8 textbooks with ancillaries (3D printing, quizzes, tests, and add ons) to enrich each textbook.
    • The grant begins September 1st.
      • CARLI hopes that multiple CARLI institutions will collaborate on grant applications to create textbooks to be used at multiple institutions.
      • Each sub-grant proposal will have a local team and be supported by CARLI’s grant team.
        • Textbooks subject area will be Health with a wide range of topics acceptable.
        • Covered by most of our institutions
        • Focus on introductory level classes
      • Adopting and adapting is still viable in these projects.
      • 3D printing can be used across disciplines
        • A concrete way for students to understand and absorb topics.
        • 3D printing is required for the sub-grants.
        • CARLI’s 3D printing expert is good at helping create applications for 3D printing.
        • CARLI will be giving webinars on 3D printing in October 6 and 20 at 2pm for the Professional Development Alliance. Registration is not yet available.
  • CARLI was able to create a 3rd cohort of IMLS grant funded CARLI Counts project.
    • Seven teams of library staff from around the state participating this year in the virtual program that begins in September.
  • A reminder to check the Events Calendar on CARLI website as there are many free continuing education programs available.
    • LOUIS is hosting an event on their DoE grant on Dual Enrollment textbooks on September 28.
    • Registration is not yet live
    • Interactive OER for Dual Enrollment Grant Panel

Discussion

• The CARLI resources for committee communication were shared with members.
  • All members are subscribed to the committee email list.
• CARLI also has a CARLI OER email list for the entire membership.
  • OEN Google Group – As a consortial member, we can give a certain number of people access to the google group. Members of the committee have access.
    • If you don’t use your institutional email for google groups, please send Elizabeth or Nicole your preferred email for using this group.
  • Box is used for committee continuing education.:
    • If your institution uses Box, you can use those credentials.
    • If you don’t already have an account, you’ll need to create one.
  • The Committee uses Zoom for group meetings.
• Denise proposed a collaboration that would allow faculty at CoD to get credit for OER workshops.
  • CoD must be involved in developing the curriculum
• The committee reviewed its charge and noted the language on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• The committee recapped its past work.
  • OER Website
    • Contains many OER resources for our use
    • Surveys (student and faculty)
    • Rubrics
    • Informational pamphlets
    • Faculty Stipend Sample Agreements
    • OER by discipline
    • And More
  • Continuing Education
    • This is core work for committee.
    • Programs are repeated and continue to fill and have waitlists.
    • CARLI has slides and speaker notes, so committee members do not need to create the workshops from scratch.
    • Most workshops are divided among 3-4 presenters.
    • We did about 10 programs over the past year.
      • OER Course: Understanding and Promoting OER
      • Faculty Workshop
      • OER Office Hours
      • Open Education Week is in March
      • OEN Certificate in OER Librarianship Program
        • We propose funding for scholarships for IL librarians to the CARLI Program Planning Committee.
          • We should discuss if we want to make the proposal again as it is not automatic.
  • Open Illinois: CARLI’s OER Commons Hub
    • CARLI is waiting on some behind the scenes CARLI work before officially announcing.
    • It is a platform for groups to collaborate, and have an institutional presence.
    • “OER from Illinois” is pretty sparse but will grow.
    • We can suggest resources for the site to further curate the content.
    • OER Commons contact at an institution can add their faculty to their group to collaborate.
      • Faculty can use the form on the group page to join.
      • Admins can add people directly.
      • CARLI is admin on all groups to ease transitions.
    • Hoping that anything that is created through our grant program is hosted in the Open Illinois Hub on OER Commons and promoted outside of Illinois.
    • Open Author is the creation tool within OER Commons.
    • We have some trainings that come from OER Commons, and we will start scheduling this programming with input from the committee.
• Brainstorming FY22 Activities
  • Pursuing another grant to get institutions exploring OER, smaller commitment than SCOER grant. To support faculty entry to OER.
  • There are institutions who are now looking at fundraising for OER from the Development offices.
  • A program on guiding people through a grant process, finding sources of funding and providing guidance on the application.
  • Guidance on getting internal funding for OER.
  • Programming related to OER Commons to get people familiar with the tools.
  • Pull in outside experts for programs
    • Open Pedagogy as a potential topic
    • Accessibility
      • Creation – even with tools, there are things the author will need to do.
      • Content for mobile devices.
  • It’s easy to get Librarians excited, but much harder to get faculty excited.
    • OER isn’t inherently more inclusive.
    • The move from OER that exists to OER that is adapted or created by CCC faculty.
  • Tamara ran an OER gameshow, and was a successful presentation style.

Next Meeting Dates and Deadlines

The next committee meeting is September 16, 2021 from 1-2:30.

Committee Meetings: Third Thursday from 1-2:30
October 21
November 18
December 16
January 20
February 17
March 17
April 21
May 19
June 16