Goal #1: Design a distinctive, relevant liberal arts education that positions Trinity College as a first choice destination for students, faculty, and staff

• Objective 1: Connect the curriculum more fully to the college’s mission, including its valuing of guided self-reflection and experiential learning, articulating clearly what defines a Trinity liberal arts education

Strategic Initiative: Integrate opportunities for all students to reflect on their learning and passions, incorporating technology and innovative pedagogy

OER Connections: OER-enabled pedagogy allows faculty to engage in the kinds of innovative pedagogical practices we value while empowering students to be producers of knowledge. The latter benefit is consistent with our mission to “foster [students’] critical, reflective engagement with scholarship.”

• Objective 2: Attract and retain the highest caliber of students, faculty and staff

Strategic Initiative: Ensure competitive salaries and benefits and enhance resources to support and recognize faculty in their scholarship, teaching, and professional development

OER Connections: Our OER mini grant program supports faculty who are interested in incorporating OER into the curriculum. One of the SMART goals identified in this action plan is to partner with Trinity’s Center for Teaching and Learning and the CTW library consortium, to which Trinity belongs, to develop a series of faculty workshops on OER, OER-enabled pedagogy, and copyright and Creative Commons licenses. These workshops, along with the mini grant program, support faculty in their scholarship, teaching, and professional development. Additionally, one of our long-term SMART goals is to investigate the inclusion of open education in the guidelines for tenure and promotion.

• Objective 3: Foster an inclusive campus community that embraces diversity and complexity, engages across difference with integrity and empathy, and participates actively in the life and governance of the College

Strategic Initiative: Reduce financial barriers for all students to access the full Trinity educational experience

Strategic Initiative: Enhance resources to support an increasingly diverse community of students, faculty, and staff where all are welcome

OER Connections: Our OER initiative is designed to foster an equitable and inclusive campus by reducing the financial barriers that keep some of our students from accessing the full Trinity educational experience.

One of the broad indicators of success identified in the Summit strategic plan is improved retention and graduation rates. This action plan uses the COUP framework to assess the impact of OER and open pedagogy on various measures of student success. 

Template 1: Outreach E-mail to Students Empowering them to Advocate for OER 

From: Yoli Bergstrom-Lynch (ybergstr@trincoll.edu) 

To: Students 

Dear Students, 

If you’ve ever opted not to buy a textbook for a course because the price tag was too high, then you are not alone. Since 2006, the average cost of textbooks has risen four times faster than the rate of inflation. And publishers routinely bundle textbooks with access codes, making it really difficult to avoid paying full price. On average, students can expect to spend over $1,200 a year for books. Like so many of you, students across the nation are responding to the high price of textbooks by either opting not to buy required texts, taking fewer courses, avoiding certain courses, or dropping classes.  

But these are not your only options. There is a better alternative in the form of open educational resources or OER. These are free textbooks written by professors that you can read online or purchase a print copy at a very low cost. Students and faculty who have used OER perceive these open textbooks to be as good as or better than traditional textbooks, and rightfully so since students achieve at the same levels or better than when a commercial textbook is assigned. OER will not only reduce the burden brought on by the rising cost of traditional textbooks, it will also make a Trinity education accessible to all students: that is our mission, our vision, and our values. 

The library has been working closely with various campus partners to bring OER to Trinity, but we need your help. Talk to a professor you know and feel comfortable with about your experiences and benefits of OER, sign the petition [add hyperlink] to encourage your student government to pass a resolution to [insert what will be relevant at the time], join your fellow Bantams in the campaign to build Trinity’s OER initiative by checking out one of their weekly meetings in the basement of Mather Hall on Tuesday’s at 4:30. Also, please feel free to reach out to me – your librarian -- anytime if you would like to learn more about OER and other ways to get involved.  

Template 2: Outreach E-mail Inviting Faculty to Apply for Library OER Grant

From: Yoli Bergstrom-Lynch (ybergstr@trincoll.edu) 

To: Faculty 

Dear [Insert name], 

As you evaluate course materials for the upcoming semester, I wanted to share with you some information about open educational resources (OER) that can be incorporated into your classes as well as our new grant program to aid you in the process.  

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that prices for college textbooks increased 88% from 2006 to 2016. The high cost of commercial textbooks negatively affects student access, success, and completion. For example, a 2018 large-scale survey of students conducted by Florida Virtual Campus found that students responded to high textbook costs by not buying the required text (64.2%), taking fewer courses (42.8%), not registering for a specific course (40.5%), earning a poor grade (35.5%) or dropping a course (22.9%).  

A recent survey of students at American University finds that private colleges and universities like Trinity are not immune to the barriers presented by rising textbook costs. The push for OER at Trinity has come largely from our students, demonstrating that we are not exempt from concerns about textbook affordability. This is especially true given that we have expanded access to financial aid to recruit a more socioeconomically diverse and inclusive student body. Currently, 60 percent of our students receive financial aid, compared to 48 percent five years ago. In 2013, Trinity joined 10 other colleges and universities in signing on to the Say Yes to Education Compact to signify its commitment to making a Trinity education accessible and affordable to all. We have also developed programs and initiatives to ensure that we support all our students once they arrive on campus. 

Our OER initiative is designed to foster an inclusive campus by reducing the financial barriers that keep some of our students from accessing the full Trinity educational experience. Open educational resources are teaching, learning, and research resources that are free of cost, access, and permission barriers because they reside in the public domain or have Creative Commons Licenses. OER come in different types (textbooks, software, data, tests, modules) and formats (digital or print), can be customized to your course needs and learning outcomes, are comprehensive and often peer-reviewed, and can include ancillary materials. 

Beyond cost savings, students and faculty who have used OER perceive these open textbooks to be as good as or better than commercial textbooks. There is empirical support for faculty and student perceptions of OER. A recent systematic review of research on OERs found that 93% of students who use OER achieve at the same levels or better as those using traditional textbooks. Additionally, OER enabled open pedagogy can empower students to become producers of knowledge by becoming OER content creators. 

I recognize that it takes a significant amount of time and effort to incorporate OER into your courses, and so I invite you to consider applying to our OER grant program [insert hyperlink to grant page], which offers support from our staff and a stipend of up to $1,500 for faculty interested in exploring OER in their classes. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have questions about OER, copyright, Creative Commons Licenses, or if you need assistance in finding, evaluating, and incorporating OER into your courses. 

Template 3: Thank you E-mail to Dean/CFO and Invitation to OER Faculty-Student Panel

From: Yoli Bergstrom-Lynch (ybergstr@trincoll.edu) 

To: Dean of Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs, CFO 

Dear [Insert Administrator’s Name]: 

I am writing to thank you for supporting our open educational resources (OER) grant program and to invite you to attend our Common Hour panel of faculty who have received the grants as well as their students who have benefited from OER directly on [insert date and registration].  

Since 2006, the average cost of textbooks has risen four times faster than the rate of inflation. Studies show that the rising cost of commercial textbooks are detrimental to student access, success, and completion of courses. For example, a 2018 large-scale survey of students conducted by Florida Virtual Campus found that students responded to high textbook costs by not buying the required text (64.2%), taking fewer courses (42.8%), not registering for a specific course (40.5%), earning a poor grade (35.5%) or dropping a course (22.9%). A recent survey of students at American University demonstrates that private colleges and universities are not exempt from issues of textbook affordability. 

Thanks to your generous support, our OER grant program advances one of the core themes of our Summit strategic plan, which is to enhance student access, equity, and opportunity by reducing the financial barriers that may keep some of our students from accessing the full Trinity educational experience. Beyond cost savings, one of the major benefits of OER to both students and faculty is instant, unlimited, perpetual access to course materials for all students the first day of classes. Research shows that the use of OER results in high levels of satisfaction among students and faculty, improved end of course grades and decreased drop/fail/withdrawal rates, and similar or improved levels of achievement. 

Thank you again for supporting our grant program and for providing the institutional support to bring OER to Trinity. We are grateful for your continued support and look forward to hopefully seeing you at the faculty/student panel presentation on OER. In the meantime, I invite you to reach out to me with questions.   

Audience: Faculty 

Existing Resources

• Introduction to OER PowerPoint Presentation

• Open Educational Resources LibGuide

• OER Grant

New Resources to Develop

• Add to existing OER LibGuide (could include benefits of OER for students and faculty, address common myths, tools/rubrics for evaluating OER, using OER, creating OER, open pedagogy and renewable assignments, copyright and Creative Commons licenses; OER at Trinity to highlight cost savings and other key metrics, and perhaps testimonials from faculty champions and the digital storytelling content from students)

• Workshop series: Three workshops in the Spring of 2022 on locating and evaluating OER, using/remixing/revising/creating OER, and OER-enabled pedagogy, and three workshops in the Fall of 2022 on OER and accessibility, assessing the impact of OER on student learning outcomes, and integrating OER into Moodle

• OER institutional repository: We have an institutional repository. It is worth exploring if we can use this as a searchable catalog of OER Trinity faculty have adopted for their courses

• Textbook listening tour to gain a better understanding of how faculty go about selecting their course materials (this will depend on when everyone returns to campus)

• Open textbook pop-up library to increase faculty engagement with OER (pop-up library will be tied to specific campus events like Open Education Week)

• Open textbook faculty reviews (BC Open Textbook Project adapted a set of review practices being used by the Saylor Foundation and implemented technology to support the process. Faculty were paid a small honorarium to do the reviews and their feedback was posted online for others to see. We can include formal open textbook reviews in our mini grant)

Audience: Students

Existing Resources

• OER LibGuide

• Trinity ConnPIRG

New Resources to Develop

• Student survey to examine the effects of textbook and materials cost on education, purchasing behaviors, course completion, and student success

• Digital storytelling content in collaboration with Trinity ConnPIRG (see Openstax’s “Our impact” page for examples)

• OER infographics & posters to raise awareness of OER (what it is and its benefits)

• OER virtual student engagement board to be shared with faculty via our various social media platforms

• Presentations to student groups to raise awareness of OER (what it is and its benefits)

Audience: Administrators

Existing Resources

• OER LibGuide

• OER Grant (relevant to faculty department chairs)

New Resources to Develop

• OER metrics to demonstrate the impact of the initiative on cost savings, outcomes, usage, and perceptions (COUP framework) [this will require development of surveys]

• Slide deck of key talking points, connections to college's mission and strategic plan, and localized data

Audience: Librarians

Existing Resources

• OER LibGuide

New Resources to Develop

• Why OER? presentation which offers talking points about the benefits of OER for students and faculty, how our initiative aligns with the mission and strategic plan of the college, and how it aligns with the mission of information services and our various programs, and key metrics from our initiative 

• Workshops: Three workshops in the Spring of 2022 on locating and evaluating OER, using/remixing/revising/creating OER, and OER-enabled pedagogy, and three workshops in the Fall of 2022 on OER and accessibility, assessing the impact of OER on student learning outcomes, and integrating OER into Moodle

• OER consultation request form to be integrated into the OER LibGuide and the forms section of our new website for Information services (see example from University of Missouri) 

Audience: Instructional Technologists 

Existing Resources

• OER LibGuide

New Resources to Develop

• Why OER? Presentation which offers talking points about the benefits of OER for students and faculty, how our initiative aligns with the mission and strategic plan of the college, and how it aligns with the mission of information services and our various programs, and key metrics from our initiative 

• Workshops: Three workshops in the Spring of 2022 on locating and evaluating OER, using/remixing/revising/creating OER, and OER-enabled pedagogy, and three workshops in the Fall of 2022 on OER and accessibility, assessing the impact of OER on student learning outcomes, and integrating OER into Moodle