Open Educational Resources Task Force Meeting: February 18, 2020

Conference Call

Members attending: Sara Benson, co-chair (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Janet Swatscheno (UIC), Sue Shultz (DePaul University), Linda Zellmer (Western Illinois University)

Members absent: Annette Alvarado (Loyola University Chicago), Anne Chernaik (College of Lake County), Elizabeth Nelson (McHenry County College), Anne Shelley (Illinois State University)

Staff attending: Elizabeth Clarage, Lorna Engels

Announcements

• Anne Chernaik, Elizabeth and Janet will be attending an OER session in Springfield on April 17.
• College of DuPage is planning an OER program in Fall.
• Member Announcements:
  • Linda attended an ILA Legislative Meetup and spoke with Representative Mike Halpin from Moline about the importance of OER to students. It would help them save money, could mean the difference between taking two vs. three classes, and could help keep students in the state.
  • Janet – UIC OER Mini Grant proposals were due at the end of January and are now being evaluated. They got 6 requests. OER can be difficult for faculty to create as some courses must use the same textbook and not all faculty are equally interested in creating or using OER.
  • Sue – She is doing a survey and benchmarking study. The survey was sent out two weeks ago, and will be open one more week. Sent to 28 people and have 12 responses to date.
  • Sara - Professor Jasmine Roberts from The Ohio State University will be on campus to present, "Beyond Free Textbooks: How OER Addresses Access, Inclusion, and Academic Excellence" from 3:30 – 4:30pm on March 3, 2020. Program on March 3, 2020; People are welcome to attend; Program will be live streamed.
• CARLI Updates:
  • CARLI Research Funding Program
    • Applications due in May 2020.
  • Professional Development Reimbursement Program
    • Applications start July 1, 2020.
  • Continuing Education Programs. Registration is not yet available for these programs.
    • Preservation Committee
      • The committee is planning an Open House at The Newberry Library and the Chicago History Museum on March 27, 2020.
    • Instruction Committee and Public Services Committee
      • The two committees are planning a Primo VE introduction program at Joliet Junior College on April 2.
      • The program is not training.
      • The planning committee is hoping to live-stream and record the presentations.
    • Created Content Committee
      • The committee is planning an OpenRefine Workshop at the I-Hotel in Champaign on April 30.
    • On June 28, CARLI will host a 40th Anniversary Celebration and Scholarship Kick-Off at the Art Institute. More information will be forthcoming.
  • Pending contract and UI Legal approval, funded consortial ebooks access will begin July 1.
  • The CARLI sponsored OpenAthens webinar provides an overview of the product and its implementation.
  • Alma
    • Staff are preparing the calendar for the production load; It will be shared soon to CARLI members.
    • The project is still on target for Alma go live date on June 24, 2020.

Tasks Assigned

• Linda volunteered to take the meeting minutes.
• Sara will send an email reminder to the task force email list about Open Education Week. There is one day left for a member to volunteer to write about a topic for the email list distribution.
• Janet will send the link to the draft Task Force recommendation to the task for edits and comments.
• All task force members will review the recommendation document. It is due to CARLI staff by February 25.
• Elizabeth will ask Anne Craig if she thinks the co-chairs should call into the CARLI Board meeting on March 6.

Decisions

• The CARLI update was added to the agenda.
• Minutes of the January meeting were approved.

Discussion

• Open Education Week - Open Education Week posts have been filled except for Monday. Janet, Linda, Sara, Sue are all on the list to provide content. Need one more volunteer. Could switch Linda’s contribution if someone else needs more time.
• OER Commons Hub - The CARLI Board has funded an OER Commons Hub. It will happen, but CARLI needs to work with IKSME on the contract. CARLI would like input on the hubs organization to make it a more useful site.
  • Would you like the task force to talk about how to use it or how it could be used? Yes.
  • What kind of outreach and promotion would there be? The task force could help with this. Faculty do not know where to put what they have made. OER Commons Hub does not provide opportunities to publish a finished, polished product but items that have been created elsewhere can be uploaded to the site.
• Draft Proposal to CARLI Board Re: future of the Task Force - Janet has started a draft of a proposal in Google and shared the document with the group. She summarized activities from the Logic Model, picking highlights so as not to overwhelm the Board. It has a rationale for a Committee proposal. Since CARLI is supporting OER financially, we should establish a committee to build on the work already done by the Task Force. Members should look at the document and particularly the Charge to make suggestions. People need to comment by Friday, February 21. Need to add the paragraph about the committee could be assigned projects by the Board of Directors. Janet will pick out the parts from the Strategic Plan that support the reasons for a separate committee and add it to the proposal.

Next Meeting and Deadline

• The OER Task Force will meet via conference call on March 17, 2020.
• The Committee recommendation to the Board is due March 25, 2020.