SPARC Projects

Connect OER

Open Education

Fort Hays State University

Hays, KS, United States
Official Website • @FortHaysState

Type: Public 4-Year
Annual Enrollment: 13,825

  SPARC Member  

OER Webpage
OER LibGuide

Overview

FHSU’s OER initiative began with AASCU’s Red Balloon Initiative for innovative teaching practices in 2007-2014. As part of the initiative, FHSU formed an Open Educational Resources Committee in 2012 under the leadership of Academic Affairs and the Office of the Provost. Today that committee includes representatives from Forsyth Library, Teaching Innovation and Learning Technologies (TILT), Student Government, and faculty. In 2017, the OER committee administered a faculty survey about perceptions of OERs. In 2019, FHSU’s Faculty Senate made a resolution in support of zero-cost course materials. The OER Committee has offered an Open Textbook Grant Program since 2016.

In collaboration with TILT and Technology Services, the library has offered a series of mini-conferences on open access, copyright, getting started with OERs, and advanced OERs. As of February 2020, FHSU’s executive leadership team approved a new Z-Course Initiative proposed by the OER Committee that will incentivize departments with high-enrollment courses to convert them to use zero-cost course materials. The OER Committee is currently working on implementation.

Campus Details

Campus Entities Most Active in Efforts Advancing OER:

Library Departments Active in Efforts Advancing OER:

Academic Subjects With Greatest OER Traction:

Mechanisms to Support OER Included in the Following:

OER Staff Location:


OER Programs

Z-Course Program

The Z-Course Program has two primary goals:
1. Identify existing courses using zero-cost course materials, tag them in the student registration system starting Fall 2021, and offer a financial incentive to departments offering these courses
2. Offer grants for converting large-enrollment courses to use zero-cost course materials starting Fall 2020

Seed funding for the program comes from the FHSU Foundation. However, the program aims to be self-sustaining. With the support of Student Government, students taking Z-Courses will be charged a $12 fee in lieu of course materials, with half of the funds going back to the OER Committee to be re-invested in OER initiatives and the other half going to the department offering the course.

Program Type:

Duration: 08/2020 - Present

Program Webpage: https://fhsu.edu/oer/z-courses/z-course-grant-faq

Scope: Cost-free course content, including OER

Primary OER Strategy: OER Adoption

Secondary OER Strategies: OER Adaptation, OER Awareness, OER Curation, OER Pedagogy, OER Publication

Unit Housing the Program:

Program Partners:

Source of Program Funding:

Incentives Offered by the Program:

Conditions: Recipients are required to openly license and freely share resources created or adapted

Open Textbook Grant Program

The Fort Hays State University (FHSU) Forsyth Library and the OER Committee provide mini grants of $500-$3000 for faculty wishing to write, adapt, or add supplementary materials to open textbooks. Finished textbooks and supplementary materials are posted in the FHSU Scholars' Repository.

Program Type:

Duration: 04/2016 - Present

Program Webpage: https://fhsu.edu/oer/otgp/index

Scope: OER (open course content)

Primary OER Strategy: OER Adaptation

Secondary OER Strategies: OER Awareness, OER Publication, OER Research

Unit Housing the Program:

Program Partners:

Source of Program Funding:

Total Program Funding to Date: $ 20,000

Incentives Offered by the Program:

Conditions: Recipients are required to openly license and freely share resources created or adapted

Total amount of incentive grants awarded to date: $ 19,500

Total number of incentive grants awarded to date: 8


Point of Contact

Claire Nickerson
Learning Initiatives and OER Librarian, Forsyth Library
@QuotLib