Open Educational Resources Task Force Meeting: November 13, 2018

CARLI Office, Champaign

Members attending: Annette Alvarado, by phone (Loyola University Chicago), Connie Ghinazzi (Augustana College), Kathy Ladell, co-chair (Northern Illinois University), Elizabeth Nelson (McHenry County College), Anne Shelley, co-chair (Illinois State University), Sue Shultz, by phone (DePaul University), Linda Zellmer (Western Illinois University)

Members absent: Anne Chernaik (College of Lake County), Janet Swatscheno (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Staff attending: Elizabeth Clarage, Anne Craig, Lorna Engels

Tasks Assigned

  • Anne Shelley will take minutes.
  • Anne S. will create Google doc for creating list of needed OERs/open textbooks. Post to CARLI website and ask people to contribute.
  • Elizabeth will put registration information for 1/15 call in the November newsletter.
  • Elizabeth and Lorna will share Open Conference Call, registrant questions with the Task Force the week prior to the call.
  • Anne S. will create Google doc and invite TF members to add topics/resources for posting to CARLI OER email list to spark discussion.
  • Elizabeth and Lorna will approach a possible keynote speaker for an in-person program.
  • Co-chairs will check with Janet about a webinar on creating / publishing OER.

Decisions

  • Group decided that the week of December 17 would be better than after the holiday break to load the new set of MARC records for the Open Textbook Library ebooks.
  • Task Force will hold another open conference call on Tuesday, January 15 from 1-2 pm.  Kathy will moderate the call.

Announcements

  • Member Updates:
    • Annette – During Open Access Week, two librarians put up whiteboards asking students how much they spent, what they do to save money.
    • Connie – Described conversation with English faculty who is skeptical of OER; takeaway: that’s OK.
    • Sue – Met with psychology faculty who thought it was interesting students were concerned with textbook costs over tuition costs (textbook cost is immediate and tuition cost is kicked down the road).
    • Kathy – Thinking about approaching library faculty at Kishwaukee College to partner on programming for Open Ed Week 2019.
    • Anne – The institutional Textbook Affordability Committee updates has created a strategic plan, and will likely do another environmental scan.
    • Elizabeth – Their bootcamps and the low cost/no cost resources created during their program will very shortly (with the next enrollment period) have saved students $1 million on textbook costs.
    • Linda – The WIU textbook affordability committee meets on Thursday. She was able to get a list of all assigned textbooks for the campus.
  • CARLI Updates:
    • Annual Meeting report:
      • Went well, well-attended. I-Share Next was big draw, Ex Libris contract still not signed but definitely moving to Alma. Will have Primo VE for discovery layer. The  migration is planned for 2020, possibly 2021. Support for VuFind will go away at that point. Anticipate small price increases, migration costs will be paid through reserve funds so no price increases to membership.
      • IMLS grant – CARLI Counts. Continuing education grant for librarians – help libraries learn how to use data to create narratives about their value/return on investment. Application is available for the first co-hort. Library applies and then library decides which staff person will represent their institution.
      • Slides are posted on CARLI website – search through CARLI calendar, Annual Meeting.
      • Released annual report, value graphics, and strategic plan.
      • Elizabeth represented task force at Annual Meeting. Open textbook brochures were placed on attendee tables. A couple people talked to Elizabeth afterward, Morton College is planning on doing a workshop.
    • Other updates:
      • Elizabeth attended RAILS/IACRL meeting. Prairie State is using psychology open textbook for all sections of an introductory course.
      • College of DuPage / College of Lake County OER Symposium is November 30. November 14 through 20 – people outside of community colleges can register. Lorna and Elizabeth will attend. Sue is planning on going if she gets approval. Connie is also interested.
      • The Collection Management Committee is putting together a survey for CARLI members on textbooks. Are libraries purchasing textbooks and putting them on reserve?

Discussion

  • Discussions during member updates:
    • Sue – Many faculty conversations about incorporating OERs into courses; faculty don’t want a list of links, they want information about a process about finding different types of OERs; it is time-consuming for librarians to look for OERs for faculty.
    • Linda – Faculty found an OER using George Mason metafinder; important to touch base with personal e-mail.
    • Connie – OASIS has been helpful, especially if no constraints on using an OTL book; discuss course more in depth than just the title of the book, ask faculty for syllabus, concepts, etc. She has allowed faculty to use other open resources if the Open Textbook Library does not include a relevant textbook to earn the stipend for a review.
    • Sue has been looking for case studies and videos for professor; feels pressure to produce because doesn’t want to lose professor enthusiasm.
    • Linda suggested looking for journal article pre-prints if VOR is behind a paywall.
    • Create a checklist? Flow chart? Best practices for locating OERs?
    • Connie suggested keeping a list of open textbooks that are needed – to help prepare for future grants – Elizabeth C. suggested starting a Google doc.
    • Anne S. will create Google doc for creating list of needed OERs/open textbooks. Post to CARLI website and ask people to contribute – does something like this already exist?
    • Kathy – upper level OERs are harder to find.
    • Linda suggested looking in Worldcat by publisher, such as OpenStax or Open Textbook Library, then using classification information to determine what areas are not covered. Where the holes are – what is missing?
    • Linda –She is also on her campus Center for Teaching and Learning Technologies, CTLT advisory board, CTLT does regular questionnaires – upcoming one is on technology and Linda is asking for some questions on open textbooks; trying to determine which faculty are using open textbooks.
    • Connie – Her campus had a question on student end of semester faculty / course evaluations about open textbooks – "is there a required textbook that you have to buy?” Better wording this year, in response to last year’s query, “are all the resources you need available through Moodle site?” She will share that language with the group.
    • Linda shared questions that faculty get about textbooks, distributed through the CTLT annual survey.
    • Elizabeth N. –Committee has revamped a course that most students must take and put readings into Canvas for “how to be successful at MCC” and no longer have the cost of a textbook
    • Working on indicating low and no cost book in registration system; challenges with technology; solution: put together a website list of courses, sections, and instructors with books under $50. As this information can become unmanageable due to updates, had a firm deadline to have a course on the list.The site is managed/created by chair of affordability committee and only create list once each semester.
    • Linda – There is currently a required freshman class that makes students use a Cengage book and a required pre- and post-test that factors into students’ grade.
  • CARLI OTL MARC Records Update
    • Bib IDs for OTL records have changed inadvertently in the last Voyager load. OTL changed vendors for who creates their MARC records and changed URL for each textbook.
    • Question about when to do new record load with new URLs. Group decided that the week of December 17 would be better than after the holiday break.
  • Review October’s Open OER Conference Call
    • About 20 people attended the call. Elizabeth followed up with Steve Brantley and shared suggestions for how to engage people during OA Week programming. Connie suggested having people say what their goal is for attending the call either before the call or at the beginning. Anne C. has been involved with sending questions to people before a webinar. Sue suggested having the call before Open Education Week to have people talk about what they’re doing. Elizabeth will put registration information for 1/15 call in the November newsletter.  Possible questions – what is one problem you face? What is one thing you hope to learn from the call? Identify themes at the beginning of the call based on questions people submitted. During the phone call, use Google doc. to track the conversation. No plan to record the call. Anne S. will create the Google doc. Think about creating a FAQ based on these call conversations. Kathy will moderate.
    • Elizabeth and Lorna will schedule a spring Open OER Call – January 15 @ 1. TF will collect attendee questions the week of January 7.
    • For 1/15 call: we are planning for an in-person workshop, what would you like to see addressed?
  • Grants (Anne Craig)
    • Update on SCOER grant initiative: Anne Craig is seeking partner on UI campus to do a demonstration. She has had conversations with the UIUC Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITL). The Center provides faculty support for creating online courses. Students currently pay a small amount per course to use online platform?? One idea is if CARLI could pay part of fee upfront. Concern about sustainability once grant is exhausted. She is also meeting soon to discuss potential business models. Currently “beating the bushes” and will keep task force updated. Anne offered to share a login to the UI site.
      • Connie – identifying gaps for existing OER. Would that help for this grant? Yes.
    • Connie – question about needs for demonstration. Anne needs examples of faculty who have adopted or written OER?
  • Discuss Training Possibilities
    • In-person workshop(s)
      • In-person colloquium? Anne Craig – thinking back to 2017 Forward Focus conference (http://www.forwardfocusconference.com/2017/) and upcoming community college OER Summit.Anne mentioned that OHIOLink, LOUIS hired someone to specifically work on OERs.
      • Possible sessions
        • CARLI OER Update
        • Keynote
        • Possible Breakouts/Lightning Round Topics:
          • OTN workshop model (Connie)
          • OER boot camp week (Elizabeth N.)
          • Data
            • How to track
            • Demonstrating student success
            • person at Prairie State is tracking data on student outcomes with traditional text, online OER, print OER
          • Case studies panel on how people are moving forward on their own campus
          • Affordability
          • Options for getting open textbook in different formats (printing copies)
          • Student feedback on OER
          • Strategies for getting funding (if keynote doesn’t cover this)
          • How to adapt an existing OER
          • Librarians gathering supplementary materials for an open textbook (MIT courses are all open now)
          • Partnerships and connections
          • Working with bookstores (Prairie State has Barnes and Noble)
          • Annette – bilingual master’s social work program-created research guide with page on OERs – all online students
          • Unconference/roundtable discussion time
            • Have people sit at table with assigned theme to discuss for 30 minutes, report to larger group?
      • Lightning rounds
        • Have discussion time after each talk
      • Need to determine goal of workshop
        • Look at data from Fall 2017 survey to CARLI members
        • Look at feedback from April 2018 OTN workshops
      • Discussion about audience – for librarians, include faculty? Connie said it would be useful to have presentations by librarian + faculty
      • Focus on nuts and bolts of how to do these things, and how to deal with challenges
      • Conversation about inviting/hearing from publishers
      • Possible time period
        • Late April/early May, specific dates: April 23 – May 3, but not April 30 or May 1.
      • Elizabeth will share information about potential keynote with task force members.
      • Annette offered space at Loyola, if there is no charge to attend the meeting.  She will check if having sponsors is an issue.
    • Webinars/canned videos:
      • Elizabeth C. wondered about group’s end date and providing resources for the long term.
      • Group thought OERs are changing a lot, might be challenging to make videos that would be relevant for the long term.
      • Possible webinar with Steven Bell or OHIOLink or someone else.
      • Possible webinar on how to use your Pressbooks allotment.
  • More support for publishing OERs (Training, tools, etc.)
    • Anne Craig’s discussion with CITL – they provide a lot of support and are eager for business
    • Each CARLI member institution gets a free book in PressBooks as part of the consortium’s Open Textbook Network membership.
    • Check with Janet S about doing a webinar?
  • Discuss Outreach possibilities
    • More CARLI-branded handouts?
      • Possibly, based on training or session topics
        • Example from Connie – flowchart of how faculty might adapt an OER
    • Develop schedule/strategy of pushes
      • Members take turns writing short monthly highlights of an OER resource, send to CARLI OER email list
        • Other options – description of working with faculty member, describe an experience
        • Writeup of different conferences?
        • Anne S. will create Google doc and invite TF members to add topics/resources
    • Create and maintain social media accounts? FB, Twitter
      • Could include these posts on the CARLI Twitter account
    • Anne S. will start a Google doc with possibilities for post topics and share with group
  • Collaborate with LOUIS on programming for Open Ed Week?
    • Will depend on planning for one-day conference.
    • Elizabeth C. suggested Maria Bonn as a speaker from the UIUC iSchool as her research interest includes OER.
  • Other?
    • OCLC webinar this Thursday

Next Meetings

Task Force Conference Calls:

  • December 18
  • February 19
  • March 19
  • April 16
  • May 21
  • June 18

Open Conference Call:

  • January 15, 2019

Open Education Week:

  • March 4-8, 2019