Governance / Open Educational Resources Committee Meeting: September 14, 2023

Open Educational Resources Committee Meeting: September 14, 2023

Zoom / Conference Call

Members attending: Joslyn Allison (City Colleges of Chicago), Dorinne Banks, co-chair (Adler University), Amber Burtis (Southern Illinois University Carbondale), Kim Hale (Columbia College Chicago), Lauren Kosrow, co-chair (College of DuPage); Shelly McDavid (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville), Dee Anna Phares (Northern Illinois University), Tineka Scalzo, (City Colleges of Chicago)

Members absent: Dan Matthews (Moraine Valley Community College), Christina Norton (Bradley University)

CARLI Staff attending: Elizabeth Clarage, Nicole Swanson

Decisions

  • August minutes were approved.

Tasks Assigned

  • Minutes taken by Amber Burtis.
  • Dorinne will email committee members a sheet containing ideas discussed and ask members to add additional ideas to the sheet before the October meeting.

Announcements

  • Member Announcements:
    • Amber Burtis (Southern Illinois University Carbondale): She recently sent out the CARLI student survey and has received a large response so far. The Morris Library Faculty Open Textbook award application is now open. She is starting work on planning a campus-wide OER committee.
    • Dee Anna Phares (Northern Illinois University): Applications are open for their Affordable Materials Cohort. They also got permission to give awards to campus departments that are OER champions.
    • Lauren Kosrow (College of DuPage): She is giving a conference presentation with her Provost about DuPage’s faculty OER support grant and the work being done at her institution.
  • CARLI Announcements:
    • CARLI Annual Meeting is November 16, 2023 (10am-3pm). There will be topical table talks if the OER Committee is interested in having one.
    • The most recent CARLI e-books program cycle just added 1,209 eBbooks. Those eBooks are considered affordable course materials. CARLI members have expressed that they would like the program to grow. The program is voluntary, and money collected goes to purchasing perpetual access. More information here: https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/collections-management/carli-ebook-program
      • Content available through June 30, 2024:
        • Wiley
          • Published Online Dates: January 2019 – June 2024
          • Subjects: All
          • Titles Available: ~3,500
        • Oxford University Press
          • Published Online Dates: January 2019 – March 2024
          • Subjects: Biology, History, Law, Music, Political Science, Religion
          • Titles Available: ~2,600

Discussion

  • Committee Continuing Education:
    • Understanding and Promoting OER Course:
      • We could use more volunteers for the program. Please volunteer if you can for May or June. By our next meeting, we should have volunteers assigned and know where we need more.
    • OER Faculty Workshop:
      • There were 54 registrants for the September 13, 2023 program taught by Kim Hale, Lauren Kosrow, and CARLI staff. We need volunteers for February.  
    • OER Community Chats:
      • Lauren Kosrow led a community chat on September 11, 2023. The conversation was great, and there seems to be a need for support around how to incentivize OER when you don’t have a budget, communicating with senior administrators, and how the CARLI OER committee can continue to inform librarians about grant opportunities and funding sources for those that don’t have an internal funding structure. 14 academic librarians attended.
  • Open Education Week:
    • Last year, we did a lot of programming during Open Ed Week and would like to continue that for 2024 (March 4-8, 2024). Last year’s programming is here: https://www.carli.illinois.edu/carli-open-education-week-2023
    • Ideas for 2024 include: A faculty panel, a student-focused event with initial results of the student survey, SCOERs grantee presentations, bringing in a student government group/student stories/PIRGs to talk about how to connect with students as OER advocates and encourage their participation.
  • OEN Certificate in Open Education Librarianship:
  • Creative Commons Certificate:
    • The Midwest Higher Education Compact usually gives a discount to their members, but Elizabeth is checking to make sure the discount is still in place. CARLI also provides a discount. She will announce more details when she has confirmed the Midwest Higher Education Compact still gives a discount.
  • Illinois Secretary of State Funding:
    • The Illinois State Library will be administering the state program for Open Educational Resources. They will create a grant program that will distribute the money by June 30, 2024. Grantees would have 2 years to spend the money. The state legislature would need to pass legislation to make it continuing funding.
  • CARLI Student Survey:
    • Approximately 1,800 students have responded to the survey. 16 institutions have participated so far. All library types will be represented. The survey is open until the December 31, 2023
  • Open Illinois OER Commons Hub:
    • A couple of new institutions have joined the Hub and they are currently adding content.
  • DOE Open Pilot Grant:
    • A large number of Illinois SCOERs workshops will be offered this semester. LibreText has changed its log-on to be a single sign-on.
  • Brainstorm FY24 Activities:
    • Lauren posed the questions: From your experience with OER, what are some of the ways this committee can provide more information and support? What are some of the topics that people on your campus are interested in? And what would the best format be for each of these?
    • Ideas:
      • Communicating with your campus constituents
      • Working without a budget
      • Faculty incentives without a budget
      • Quality of OER being created by AI
      • How AI can be used as a tool in OER creation
      • Sustainability of OER projects
      • Preventing burnout for people doing the work
      • Reviewing the “Getting Started” toolkit and brochure
      • Building out the documentation for the toolkit
      • An infographic for folks to plug their OER stats info into
      • Finding and documenting faculty already using OER and/or no/low-cost resources to show cost savings for campus administrators
      • Creating accessible OER (presentation from an instructional designer)
      • Workflows around digital publishing
      • One-hour introduction information session to “What is OER?” (recorded webinar or live session)
      • Misconceptions about OER, Pre- and Post-test about OER, Placement test on OER
      • “OER: You’ve been doing it all wrong”
    • Dorinne will email committee members a sheet containing ideas discussed and ask members to add additional ideas to the sheet before the October meeting.

Next Meeting Dates and Deadlines

The next committee meeting is October 12, 2023 at 9:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Note taker will be Christina Norton.

Committee Meetings:
October 12, 2023; Minutes taker - Christina
November 9. 2023; Minutes taker - Dan
December 14, 2023; Minutes taker - Dee Anna
January 11, 2024; Minutes taker - Dorinne
February 8, 2024; Minutes taker - Joslyn
March 14, 2024; Minutes taker - Kim
April 11, 2024; Minutes taker - Shelly
May 9, 2024; Minutes taker - Tineka
June 13, 2024; Minutes taker – to be determined

Deadlines: