I chose to create a plan for promoting OERs to faculty at Tulane University, an R1 university in Louisiana. My plan takes several approaches to promote and support the use of OERs by faculty, because while the idea is relatively simple it represents a fairly large shift in the way that many faculty likely think of teaching. As Tulane has a fairly large School of Liberal Arts as well as a Business School, Law School, Medical School and Schools of Architecture, Public Health and Social Work, there are many different types of faculty and teaching styles that will have to be considered. And beyond initial faculty buy-in, making the use of OERs sustainable will require policy and technical support from the library and university administration.
First it will be important to launch an education campaign for faculty to introduce the OER project at Tulane and address common misconceptions. This could consist of presentations at faculty meetings or mandatory training during the summer, and would cover the benefits of OERs (including data on learning outcomes) and the breadth of resources that are encompassed in the term ‘OER’. These presentations will be key to setting the stage for sustained investment in developing a practice of creating and using OERs by clearly defining what the university considers an OER and how it fits into the university and library’s educational missions. Because Tulane’s resources on OERs currently consist of a short libguide not tailored to the needs of faculty, these presentations will also need to dispel myths about OERs being low quality, and educate faculty about what ‘open’ means in this context. These presentations could also be spaces where faculty could voice any concerns or request further training or support, and shape the further rollout of the OER project.
Next, to make the project successful it would be useful to have designated funds to make the new processes and skills easy for faculty to learn and apply. The library should either put together a series of workshops on skills related to developing OERs, and/or provide funding for existing workshops and conference attendance for faculty interested in OERs. Upon completion of the workshop series, faculty could apply for an award that would allow them to allocate time or resources to developing OERs for the institutional repository. This award could be monetary, include further training or travel, or it could be in the form of lighter teaching or administrative duties for a certain period. Naming the award something like an Innovation in Teaching Grant could be useful to allow inclusion on CVs and tenure applications.
Tulane should also consider building or adapting an institutional repository with the needs of OERs in mind. This repository would have to support different media types to potentially host video and course modules, and might provide space for reviews and comments as well as links to related materials. Maintaining a well-built and purposeful repository could be useful in building a reputation for Tulane OERs and raising the profile of the school overall in terms of innovative digital education.
Finally, maybe the biggest single action that Tulane could take to promote the creation and usage of OERs would be to count or even require them in tenure applications. This would be free for the university to implement but would immediately send the message that OERs are valued by the institution and would provide a concrete incentive for faculty to invest their time in the development of OERs. Academia can be a conservative environment and it can be difficult to try new things, especially when they are time-consuming or do not seem directly applicable to requirements for career advancement. Tenure requirements are huge drivers behind the activities and choices of faculty, and they should reflect the kind of scholarship, teaching and output that the university would like to see. Especially when trying to introduce something as paradigm-shifting as open resources in teaching, it would help immensely to have the shift valued and supported from this highest administrative level, to the technical aspect of the repository and the ongoing involvement of librarians.
I, Sara Kittleson, have neither given nor received aid while working on this assignment. I have completed the graded portion BEFORE looking at anyone else's work on this assignment.