Open Educational Resources Task Force Meeting: May 21, 2019

Conference Call

Members attending: Sara Benson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Anne Chernaik (College of Lake County), Kathy Ladell, co-chair (Northern Illinois University), Elizabeth Nelson (McHenry County College), Anne Shelley, co-chair (Illinois State University), Sue Shultz (DePaul University), Janet Swatscheno (University of Illinois at Chicago), Linda Zellmer (Western Illinois University)

Members absent:  Annette Alvarado (Loyola University Chicago), Connie Ghinazzi (Augustana College)

Staff attending:  Elizabeth Clarage, Anne Craig

Tasks Assigned

• Sue Shultz will take minutes.
• Kathy, Anne S., Elizabeth C., and Lorna will write up a recommendation for the board that the Task Force continues for one more year.

Decisions

• April minutes approved

Announcements

• Member Announcements: No member announcements
• CARLI Announcements:
  • OTN Summit: Elizabeth will be attending the OTN Summit in Minnesota in July 2019.
  • OTN Dashboard: Elizabeth received an email from the OTN announcing that they are working on their dashboard to handle workshop information.
    • New implementation: They can now add in information about textbooks that are in development.
    • There is limited access to people who work on a statewide level. Elizabeth and Lorna can add information for us about projects we are working on.
    • The OTN is hosting a webinar about the dashboard which Elizabeth will attend.
  • CARLI OER Webinar: Building an OER Workshop for your Campus will take place on May 22. It will be recorded and available on the CARLI website under Presentations.
  • CARLI will hold a webinar about participating in CARLI committees or task forces. It will take place during the second half of July.

Discussion

• OER Workshop
  • Feedback from April 29 OER Workshop at Loyola
    • Elizabeth sent a reminder email to workshop participants last week asking for feedback via the SurveyMonkey evaluation.
    • Some feedback already received addressed the level of the content presented; for participants whose institutions are in the beginning stages of OER initiatives, the content was challenging.
    • Elizabeth suggested an enhancement to address this for future events:  Provide transitions between speakers and articulate key takeaways from each speaker.
    • Another modification suggested was to organize a workshop into two tracks: A keynote speaker appealing to both tracks and then breakouts designed for beginning and advanced participants. The program description could state that the workshop is designed to be of value to anyone interested in the topic.
    • Linda suggested emailing attendees a link to the bibliography on the CARLI OER website, specifically to the background readings, as well as adding a link to the OERtf webinar presented in early 2018.
    • Kathy thanked everyone who presented and noted that the event ran smoothly with minimal technical issues.
    • Annette is still working on the recordings and once finished they will be available on the CARLI website.
• eText Demo Last Week (SCOER Proposal)
  • We should be receiving an email for guest access to eText.
  • As a group, we need to decide if we want CARLI to move forward with a grant prospectus, and do we want to go with eText or not.
    • There were some questions about accessibility (in terms of Open Educational Resources).
  • 1. Do we need a grant?
  • 2. If we do want a grant, how do we couch it?
• Discussion about a grant
  • This grant would be an opportunity for helping people statewide.
  • eText staff recommended that UI receive funds to do OER creation not available to other CARLI members (eText concerned about slow adoption by CARLI members).             
    • There were concerns about this.
    • Only UIUC would have access to filming a professor presenting a PPT and embedding in atext.
    • Concerns expressed about lack of access for other CARLI members.
    • Question about whether all eText functions would work on other learning management systems such as D2L.
    • Summing up discussion: mixed reaction to eText.
• Discussion of Pressbooks
  • Through OTN, each CARLI member may develop one free textbook on the Pressbook platform.
  • Support expressed for a grant project for Pressbooks, and perhaps support of hourly workers for production type work necessary in OER creation. Print on Demand would also necessitate graphic designers.
  • This type of grant would be more universal than eText.
• Next steps
  • Anne C. said she can rework the proposal and replace eText with Pressbooks.
  • We can also do more research into our options: for example, stipends for faculty, which could be done on an application basis.
  • Elizabeth C. said she could investigate the comment about CARLI institutional membership to Pressbooks, but she noted that Pressbooks is not the only platform. If this moved into an RFP, it would slow down this project.
• Future of the CARLI Open Educational Task Force
  • The Task Force has been active for two years.
    • There was discussion about members continuing to serve.
  • Discussion of Task Force initiatives for FY 20
    • In FY19 focused on education for the community.
    • We are in the middle of some initiatives. Depending on how the grant takes shape could affect what we do going forward.
    • We need to consider the Illinois legislature or the Illinois Board of Higher Education. Many states have legislatures that are funding initiatives for open textbooks.
      • Someone who attended the workshop might be able to provide counsel on this.
    • Task force or standing committee: Anne C. thinks this may eventually be a standing committee because of the momentum of the topic and the work the membership has invested in to date. Suggested that we ask the CARLI Board to extend the Task Force an additional year and then discuss a proposal about the future of this group including the possibility that this become a committee. The task force can create a charge over the next year.

Next Meeting

The next task force meeting is Tuesday, June 18 @ 1 pm. [cancelled]