Open Illinois Initiative

Updated: August 24, 2024

The CARLI Open Illinois Initiative is a commitment to facilitate members’ use and support of Open Educational Resources (OER), especially training, advocacy, and coordination of cooperative efforts for the benefit of Illinois higher education students.

The right navigational bar provides links to materials that may be helpful to those engaged in or plan to advocate for adoption of OER on their campuses. While this site focuses on Open Educational Resources, we also encourage librarians and instructors to advocate for library services, such as licensed resources or course reserves, to help improve affordability of course materials for students.

Projects

• CARLI Statement on the Need for Funding for Open Education in Illinois: We believe that statewide support for Open Education is vital to the success and sustainability of higher education. It eliminates barriers to access, builds opportunities for student engagement and faculty agency, and improves teaching and learning in Illinois. In March 2025, the CARLI Board of Directors endorsed the Statement on the Need for Funding for Open Education in Illinois and approved making the statement available for comments by those interested in Open Education funding.
• Illinois Secretary of State/Illinois State Library OER Grants: Announced in early 2024, this grant opportunity provided for the development of textbooks and ancillaries as open educational resources to ultimately reduce students’ costs and encourage student success. The open license allows faculty to adapt the materials to meet local needs.
• Illinois Course Materials Survey: Student Perspective: We greatly appreciate the 4733 student participants and the staff at 36 Illinois non-for-profit institutions who devoted their time and effort to distribute this 2023 survey. A report on the statewide results is available and the recording of our March 5, 2024 webinar "Key Findings and Student Reflections from the 'Illinois Course Materials Survey: Student Perspective'" is available.
• Illinois SCOERs (Support for Creation of Open Educational Resources): In September 2021, the University of Illinois System/CARLI was awarded a competitive $1.08 million Open Textbook Pilot Project grant from The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) in the U.S. Department of Education Open. Illinois SCOERs activities begin September 1, 2021 and now extends through August 30, 2025.
• CARLI's OER Commons' Hub: The Open Illinois Hub is a customized, branded resource on OER Commons where CARLI Members can create and share collections, have an institutional presence or work collaboratively, and share news and events associated with a project or organization.
• CARLI's Open Education Network Membership: The OEN is a community of schools, universities, and institutions making a difference in higher education by addressing the growing concerns about educational affordability. All CARLI Governing Members are associated with the OEN through CARLI's membership.
• Continuing Education: OER programs/courses/conferences available from CARLI and others that are available to CARLI members. All CARLI programs are free.

If you are new to the topic of affordable course materials, Background Readings have been curated on the topics of Open Educational Resources, Open Pedagogy, and Inclusive Access. These CARLI Members' websites showcase their OER efforts. This section will help libraries Get Started and includes handouts, rubrics, sample faculty & student surveys, and templates for stipend agreements. Information for Creating OER as well as information on Creative Commons Licenses: what they are, how to use, and best practices for attribution. And, these search sites will help you FIND OPEN TEXTBOOKS & OTHER OER.

Materials on this site were compiled by members of the CARLI Open Educational Resources Committee. In June, the CARLI Board and the OER Committee asked members for public comments and their Statewide Support for OER.

Please send any comments, additions, or questions to CARLI Staff.