OER Community of Practice for the UK & Ireland

About

The OER Community of Practice for the UK and Ireland is a collaboration between higher education institutions across the UK and Ireland, and the Open Education Network (OEN). The OER Community of Practice serves as a means through which open education practitioners within the region can share their experience, grow academic engagement with open educational resources (OER) and discover opportunities for mutual support and collaboration in service of making education more accessible and affordable for students.

The OEN is a membership organisation that brings together institutions of higher education from across the globe to advance the use of open educational resources and practices through actionable strategies, professional development opportunities, and tools such as the Open Textbook Library, co-created in collaboration with its community members.

The following UK institutions are members of the OEN community: Brunel University of London, Coventry University, Edge Hill University, University of Leeds, University of Sheffield

Guiding Principles

The OER Community of Practice has adopted the following Guiding Principles as a model for its activities and community interactions, in line with those of the Open Education Network: The Common Good, Equity, Inclusivity, Action, Humanity, Integrity, and Shared Abundance

Supporters:

Advisory Group

The OER Community of Practice is led by an Advisory Group, whose role is to determine the overarching strategy for the community and to support its objectives. The Advisory Group consists of six members representing higher education institutions within the UK and Ireland, as well as one staff member from the Open Education Network, who serve for a minimum of two years.

David Beales, Brunel University of London

David Beales is the University Librarian at Brunel University of London. David has a range of experience in US and UK higher education, research and parliamentary library environments and most recently worked at the House of Commons Library as the Head of Research Information. David’s areas of expertise include Open Education Resources, collection evaluation and Big Deal modelling.

Phil Brabban, Coventry University

Having initially trained and worked as a Secondary School English and Drama teacher, Phil swiftly made the decision to alter course to follow a life of excitement and high adventure in Librarianship. He began his career at Durham University in 1999 where he worked for several years, most significantly as an ‘accidental’ Systems Librarian. Phil has worked at the University Library at Coventry since 2007 in a number of leadership roles and was appointed University Librarian in 2014. Now, as Chief Librarian, he carries responsibility for the operational and strategic direction of the service across the entire University Group. Phil has been a member of SCONUL's Executive Board since 2022 and is co-Chair of the SCONUL Content Strategy group.

Dominic Broadhurst, University of Salford

Dominic Broadhurst is Head of Content & Discovery at the University of Salford, where he both leads

the library content and digital teams and is also a member of the Library Leadership Team. He has

previously worked at the University of Manchester and the Manchester Business School.

He has spoken widely at industry conferences in recent years including the Charleston conference,

the ALPSP conference and at the UKSG conference, and also written widely, including most recently

an article providing Perspectives on e-books and digital textbooks and the way ahead. He is a keen

advocate of open content for libraries and advocates for sectoral change in the production, adoption

and dissemination of Open Educational Resources and Open Source Textbooks within the UK and

beyond. Outside of work he is a keen table tennis player and loves to travel, especially to the

Balkans (see photo!).

Kirstine McDermid, University of Leeds

Kirstine is an Open Educational Resources Adviser at the University of Leeds of Leeds Libraries, dedicated to fostering inclusive and equitable learning pathways through open education. With expertise in Pressbooks, instructional technologies, WordPress, course & book design, accessibility, copyright, and licensing, she supports educators in adapting and creating open education resources. She advocates for knowledge equity and creating fairer, more inclusive approaches to producing and sharing knowledge.

Helen Moore, University of Sheffield

Helen is Faculty Librarian for Engineering & Science at the University of Sheffield, ensuring the Library supports the strategic aims of both faculties. She is a keen advocate of OER and leads the University's work in this area. Helen manages the Sheffield Pressbooks Network and is a member of the LIBER Educational Resources Working Group. Outside of work, Helen enjoys swimming, walking, dabbling in all manner of crafting activities, and leisurely coffees with friends.

Hugh Murphy, Maynooth University

Hugh is Deputy University Librarian in Maynooth University where he completed his doctorate in early nineteenth-century Irish history. Previously, he led the Collections and Content Department in the Library where he led various Open Initiatives. He has worked previously in University College Dublin Library and in the National Library of Ireland as well as lecturing in Information and Library Studies in UCD and book history and archival studies in Maynooth University. He has published in the areas of collection development, collection management, and library strategy, and has spoken nationally and internationally on these topics. Hugh is currently a member of the editorial board of the New Review of Academic Librarianship.

Barb Thees, Open Education Network

As Director of Community Engagement, Barb listens to the needs of the OEN community and facilitates opportunities for members to support one another in their work. She loves connecting people and ideas, and is excited to collaborate with institutions in the UK and Ireland in doing just that. She holds a B.A. in Spanish and a Master of Public Affairs, and her interests include environmental sustainability, outdoor adventures and all things travel.

Questions?

If you'd like to learn more, we welcome you to join the community, or email Barb Thees at thee0017@umn.edu.

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