SPARC Projects

Connect OER

Open Education

University of Arizona

Tucson, AZ, United States
Official Website • @uarizona

Type: Public 4-Year, Research University
Annual Enrollment: 42,236

  SPARC Member  

OER Webpage

Overview

The University of Arizona (UA) began piloting OER with two open textbooks as part of an eContent Pilot Project in Spring 2014. In Spring 2015, the UA joined the Open Textbook Network and librarian Cheryl Cuillier organized OER Day at the UA, which included an Open Textbook Workshop for faculty. In late 2015, we formed an OER Action Committee, which included faculty and members from the Libraries, UA Press, Office of Instruction and Assessment, UA BookStores, Office of Digital Learning (instructional designers for online courses), University Information Technology Services, Disability Resource Center, and student government. In 2016, the UA became an OpenStax institutional partner. In 2017, the UA Libraries held another Open Textbook Workshop for instructors and librarians. In 2019, development of a Z-Degree or Z-Major was added to the library's strategic map. In 2019-20, Cheryl and an instructor led an OER Learning Community. In April 2020, we launched our Pressbooks site. In Summer 2020, Cheryl and an instructional designer led a Pressbooks Learning Community.

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

Learning communities

In 2019-20, the Open Education Librarian and a faculty member led an OER learning community, covering topics like OER discovery, OER creation, Creative Commons licenses and copyright, and open pedagogy. In Summer 2020, the Open Education Librarian and an instructional designer led a Pressbooks learning community.

Program Type:

Duration: 09/2019 - 08/2020

Program Webpage: https://academicaffairs.arizona.edu/flc

Scope: OER (open course content)

Primary OER Strategy: OER Awareness

Secondary OER Strategies: OER Adaptation, OER Adoption, OER Curation, OER Pedagogy, OER Publication, OER Review/Assessment, OER Research

Unit Housing the Program:

Program Partners:

Source of Program Funding:

Incentives Offered by the Program:

UA Open Textbooks: Pressbooks Publishing Platform

The library and Digital Learning (UA's E-Learning/Distance Education group) began piloting PressbooksEDU in April 2020. We each pay half of the cost of the Silver Plan. By September 2020, our Pressbooks site had 54 active projects and 204 users. For Fall 2020, a number of open pedagogy projects are under way in Pressbooks, including a 200-student iSchool course working on a textbook project.

Program Type:

Duration: 04/2020 - Present

Program Webpage: https://opentextbooks.library.arizona.edu

Scope: OER (open course content)

Primary OER Strategy: OER Publication

Secondary OER Strategies: OER Adaptation, OER Adoption, OER Awareness, OER Curation, OER Pedagogy, OER Review/Assessment, OER Research

Unit Housing the Program:

Program Partners:

Source of Program Funding:

Funding from Library Departments:

Total Program Funding to Date: $ 4,899

Incentives Offered by the Program:

OER Action Committee

Cheryl Cuillier, the UA Libraries' OER Coordinator, and Garry Forger of the UA's Office of Instruction & Assessment formed the OER Action Committee after the 2015 Open Ed Conference. The OER Action Committee meets a few times a semester and has a listserv. Partners include the UA Libraries, UA Press, Office of Instruction & Assessment, UA BookStores, Office of Digital Learning (instructional designers for online courses), central IT, Disability Resource Center, student government, and faculty. The purpose of the group is to share information about OER (and other cost-saving initiatives on campus, such as library-licensed ebooks and Inclusive Access), discuss OER policy at the UA (e.g., as it relates to tenure and promotion), and to track and promote OER usage. There are currently 25 members of the listserv.

Program Type:

Duration: 12/2015 - Present

Scope: OER (open course content)

Primary OER Strategy: OER Awareness

Secondary OER Strategies: OER Adaptation, OER Adoption, OER Publication, OER Research

Program Partners:

Source of Program Funding:

Incentives Offered by the Program:

Links:
Other Resource

OER Events

Liaison Librarians & OER

Sarah Cohen, Managing Director of the Open Textbook Network, led this 90-minute session on how liaison librarians can support faculty adoptions of OER. The session was attended mainly by UA librarians (and 2 librarians from Pima Community College). This was one of 4 events for OER Day at the UA.

Date: May 1, 2015

Event Type:

Scope: OER (open course content)

Approximate Attendees: 12

Links:
Promotional Material

“An 'Open' Conversation: Why Free Educational Resources Matter Now More than Ever”

In this 1-hour talk, Cable Green, Director of Open Education for Creative Commons, and Cheryl Cuillier, the UA's OER Coordinator, discussed the importance of increasing access to free, high-quality educational resources. This was 1 of 4 events for Open Education Month.

Date: March 24, 2017

Event Type:

Scope: OER (open course content)

Approximate Attendees: 8

Links:
Promotional Material

Campus OER Collaborations

This 90-minute discussion focused on how to foster campus collaborations on OER projects at the University of Arizona. We also talked about possible barriers to using OER. The target audience was the newly formed OER Action Committee, campus administrators, and student government leaders. No administrators or students were able to attend. It was led by David Ernst, creator of the University of Minnesota’s Open Textbook Library, and Sarah Cohen, Managing Director of the Open Textbook Network. It was one of 4 events for OER Day at the UA.

Date: May 1, 2015

Event Type:

Scope: OER (open course content)

Approximate Attendees: 8

Links:
Promotional Material

Instructional Designers & OER

Open Textbook Library creator David Ernst, who has a Ph.D. in Learning Technology, led a 90-minute discussion about instructional design and open educational resources. It was attended mainly by instructional designers from the UA's new Office of Digital Learning. It was one of 4 events for OER Day at the UA.

Date: May 1, 2015

Event Type:

Scope: OER (open course content)

Approximate Attendees: 8

Links:
Promotional Material

"The Benefits of Open Educational Resources"

This 10-minute talk was given by Cheryl Cuillier, the UA Libraries' OER Coordinator, and Garry Forger of the UA's Office of Instruction & Assessment, at the UA's 2016 IT Summit. We discussed campus progress in promoting OER and outlined the current state of OER adoption on campus, the national and international trends for OER in higher education, and future directions and implications for OER on the UA campus.

Date: Oct. 18, 2016

Event Type:

Scope: OER (open course content)

Approximate Attendees: 20

Links:
Promotional Material

Open Textbook Workshop

This one-hour workshop was led by Cheryl Cuillier, the UA Libraries' OER Coordinator. It was timed to coincide with Open Access Week, but unfortunately also conflicted with UA's Homecoming. Unlike our previous workshop in May 2015, we didn't offer lunch or the $200 stipend. No faculty showed up. The event drew 2 librarians and a student. Lessons learned: Timing is everything, snacks don't draw attendees like a free lunch and $200 stipend do, and it works better to do targeted faculty recruitment (and preregistration) than to rely on general marketing.

Date: Oct. 23, 2015

Event Type:

Scope: OER (open course content)

Approximate Attendees: 3

Links:
Promotional Material

Open Textbook Workshop

This 90-minute workshop was led by Cheryl Cuillier, the UA Libraries' OER Coordinator. It covered what makes a textbook "open," where to find OER, best practices for integrating open textbooks into D2L course sites, tips for editing open textbooks, and the Pressbooks publishing platform. The workshop had to be rescheduled from 10/21/2016 due to the OER Coordinator's illness, so some instructors were unable to attend on the two new dates. Free lunch was provided and attendees who wrote a review for the Open Textbook Library received a $200 stipend. Attendees included 3 UA instructors, a liaison librarian, and a UA BookStores manager.

Date: Dec. 1, 2016

Event Type:

Scope: OER (open course content)

Approximate Attendees: 5

Links:
Promotional Material

Open Textbook Workshop

This 90-minute workshop was led by Cheryl Cuillier, the UA Libraries' OER Coordinator. It covered what makes a textbook "open," where to find OER, best practices for integrating open textbooks into D2L course sites, tips for editing open textbooks, and the Pressbooks publishing platform. The workshop had to be rescheduled from 10/21/2016 due to the OER Coordinator's illness, so some instructors were unable to attend on the two new dates. Free lunch was provided and attendees who wrote a review for the Open Textbook Library received a $200 stipend. Attendees included UA instructors and liaison librarians.

Date: Dec. 2, 2016

Event Type:

Scope: OER (open course content)

Approximate Attendees: 34

Links:
Promotional Material

"Lowering Costs & Increasing Student Success with Open Educational Resources"

This 10-minute talk at the UA's 2015 IT Summit was presented by Cheryl Cuillier of the UA Libraries and Garry Cuillier of the Office of Instruction & Assessment. We talked about the growing OER movement, the pros and cons of OER, how OER are being used at the UA, where to find OER online, and how to integrate them into a learning management system. The audience was a cross-section of faculty, staff, and administrators from across campus.

Date: Oct. 13, 2015

Event Type:

Scope: OER (open course content)

Approximate Attendees: 28

Links:
Promotional Material

“The ABC’s of Open Textbooks: What It’s Like to Adopt, Build, or Create a Free Resource”

During this 1-hour panel, 4 UA faculty shared their experiences using open textbooks in the classroom. The panel was moderated by Cheryl Cuillier, UA Libraries' OER Coordinator. This was 1 of 4 events for Open Education Month.

Date: March 28, 2017

Event Type:

Scope: OER (open course content)

Approximate Attendees: 18

Links:
Promotional Material
Recording

Open Textbook Workshop

The 2-hour workshop was led by David Ernst, creator of the University of Minnesota’s Open Textbook Library, and Sarah Cohen, Managing Director of the Open Textbook Network. The audience was mainly UA instructors from a variety of disciplines. The session explained OER and its advantages, and where instructors can discover open textbooks in their fields. Instructors were asked to write a short review of an open textbook in their subject area after the workshop. Reviews were posted in the Open Textbook Library. Instructors received a $200 stipend for participating in the workshop and writing a review. Free lunch was provided at the workshop.

Date: May 1, 2015

Event Type:

Scope: OER (open course content)

Approximate Attendees: 25

Links:
Promotional Material

Free-to-Use Course Materials

Cheryl Cuillier offered this webcast as part of a campus series to support faculty suddenly switching to remote instruction. It focused on OER and library-licensed materials.

Date: March 16, 2020

Event Type:

Event themes:

Scope: Cost-free course content, including OER

Approximate Attendees: 10

Links:
Recording
Slides

OER Resources

OER web pages

The UA Libraries' OER web pages are designed to help users find OER, create OER, and learn about its benefits. We also list UA courses using OER. The "Find OER" page features a customized OASIS search box.

Resource Citation:
UA Libraries. (n.d.). Open educational resources (OER). Retrieved from https://new.library.arizona.edu/instructors/oer

Free-to-use course materials web page

This web page showcases the various ways the library can provide students with access to free-to-use course materials, including OER, library-licensed ebooks, articles/book chapters through fair use, and streaming video.

Resource Citation:
UA Libraries. (n.d.). Free-to-use course materials. Retrieved from https://new.library.arizona.edu/instructors/free-course-content

Check for ebook availability form

This form was created to enable instructors and instructional designers to check for unlimited-user ebook availability through the library before they submit textbook adoptions to our campus store. If an unlimited-user ebook isn't available (which is usually the case, due to publisher restrictions), we can suggest other free/low-cost alternatives. The goal was to make the process more proactive (instead of waiting to hear from the campus store what had already been adopted).

Resource Citation:
UA Libraries. (2020). Check for ebook availability. Retrieved from https://new.library.arizona.edu/request/ebook-availability


Point of Contact

Cheryl Cuillier
Open Education Librarian, Content & Collections Department
@CherylCuillier