In the Fall of 2020, I successfully completed the highly competitive, eight-month, Open Education Network (OEN) certificate in OER Librarianship. The program culminated in the development of an OER Action Plan for my institution. 

The action plan linked below provides actionable goals for developing a sustainable open educational resources (OER) initiative at Trinity College that is designed to increase awareness, engagement, and adoption of OER while supporting the college's mission and strategic plan. 

In collaboration with The Office of the Dean of Faculty and the StudentPIRG, the Trinity College Raether library established a mini grant to encourage faculty adoption of OER. Faculty receive a $500 stipend to identify and review OER and an additional $1,000 if they adopt and incorporate OER into a course. My OER action plan builds on these efforts by offering additional strategies for increasing awareness, engagement, and use of OER on our campus.  

The action plan includes SMART goals, a program timeline, a budget, an outreach and communication plan, an evaluation and assessment plan with key metrics for measuring success, and an environmental scan in the form of a SWOT analysis. I built the various components of the action plan around four strategic priorities: 

1. Determine where we are in terms of need, perception, and use of OER 

2. Identify model programs for benchmarking and developing external partnerships 

3. Develop a communication and marketing strategy to raise awareness and align OER with broader campus initiatives around student success and equity, diversity, and inclusion 

4. Develop a sustainable OER initiative by building institutional support 

The goals identified in this plan were designed to move Trinity's burgeoning OER initiative into a campus wide, sustainable OER program that advances the strategic plan of the college by supporting student success, equitable access to education, and innovative pedagogical practices.