Education Commons^™

Choose Your Own Initiative: Exploring The Landscape Of Oer And Textbook Affordability Programs, Matt Ruen, Jacklyn A. Rander, Janelle Yahne

Presentations

Congratulations! Your college or university is ready to plan (or maybe expand!) a campus-wide initiative focused on Open Educational Resources or other textbook alternatives. But OER and affordability programs vary widely in scope, funding, and strategies, described in articles, book chapters, and news stories. At Grand Valley State University, library OER supporters faced this situation when our faculty senate established a task force to identify university-wide strategies for OER and affordable course materials. To help this task force hit the ground running, we surveyed the landscape of programs at other institutions, identified organizations actively engaged in OER work, and selected …

Oer & Textbook Affordability Initiatives: An Introduction, Janelle Yahne, Jacklyn A. Rander, Matt Ruen

Library Reports and Communication

An overview of initiatives and programs supporting the use and creation of Open Educational Resources (OER) or other Affordable Course Materials at higher education institutions. The report also identifies relevant organizations, addresses related issues in higher education and the textbook industry, and provides further readings and resources on OER.

This was originally assembled as background and reference materials for the 2018-2019 University Academic Senate Task Force on Open Educational Resources and Affordable Course Materials, at Grand Valley State University (Allendale, Michigan). It was subsequently revised and expanded in Summer 2019. The report focuses primarily on the Michigan context, and is …

Open Access For All: Uniting A University Community, Erin Mcintosh

Library Scholars Manuscripts

Open Access is not just the distribution of journal articles and scholarly information that’s free of barriers. It’s an issue of income inequality, paywalls, supplemental course material, and research impact beyond the university. Open Access has not been thoroughly discussed throughout all members of the university. This project takes a look at the conversations going on at the university levels through the perspectives of students, teaching faculty, and library faculty. Through this research, it became apparent that the value of Open Access advocacy is multifaceted, interdisciplinary and benefits from advocacy across all levels of the university. This essay is broken …

Report Of 2018-2019 Open Educational Resources & Affordable Course Materials Task Force, Thomas Pentecost, Annie Bélanger, Lihua Huang, Charles Lowe, Erin Mcintosh, Matt Ruen, Eric Szczepaniak

Library Reports and Communication

The University Academic Senate charged the OER/ACM Task Force to:

1. Explore current GVSU practices involving course material decisions.
2. Recommend strategies to recognize existing OER/ACM use by GVSU faculty.
3. Recommend strategies to increase use of existing OER/ACM services and support.
4. Recommend new initiatives or support to increase OER/ACM adoption by GVSU faculty.

This report fulfills these charges, providing information on the context of textbook usage at GVSU and delivering recommendations and possibilities for expanded OER/ACM support.