Open Illinois Initiative

Updated: April 2023

Illinois Course Materials Survey: Student Perspective

CARLI is please to share with the higher education community a research project, "Illinois Course Materials Survey: Student Perspective." The CARLI OER Committee has developed the survey to help identify Illinois students’ needs regarding affordable course materials and interest in Open Educational Resources or other affordable course material options.

CARLI invites those at Illinois not-for-profit institutions of higher learning (community colleges, private colleges and universities, public universities, and others) to share via email with their students the “Illinois Course Materials Survey: Student Perspective.” This survey has been approved by the University of Illinois’ Office for the Protection of Research Subjects. Learn more about this survey, view student outreach messages to distribute to students, and view questions within the survey on the survey project website.

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

• 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 extend through August 31, 2024.
• CARLI's OER Commons' Hub: The Open Illinois Hub is a customized, branded resource on OER Commons where our 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.