SPARC Projects

Connect OER

Open Education

Utah State University

Logan, UT, United States
Official Website @USUAggies

Type: Public 4-Year, Research University
Annual Enrollment: 27,662

  SPARC Member  

OER Webpage
OER LibGuide

Overview

The USU Library plays a critical role in transforming teaching and learning by encouraging OER adoption amongst faculty members. The initial OER adoption pilot program for OER started in the library and has since grown and gained support across campus. Promoting OER adoption at USU has been a multi-pronged effort including advocating for and increasing awareness of OER, gaining valuable insights and ideas from OER colleagues, engaging with pertinent stakeholders, setting and achieving OER project goals, and developing a campus action plan.

In 2015, USU Library partnered with Academic and Instructional Services (AIS) to further coordinate OER initiatives on campus. Results from this partnership included hiring an OER student research assistant to help discover relevant, high-quality OER for faculty and the creation a campus-wide OER steering committee. The OER Committee’s official charge is to increase “access and affordability to educational resources for students.” Drawing on the expertise of faculty, student government members, librarians, IT, and a campus bookstore representative, the committee develops and directs OER efforts across USU campus. As part of the advocacy work the committee continues to pursue, in Fall 2016, the OER Committee distributed the Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC) OER survey to measure baseline faculty interest and awareness. Survey results were used to direct targeted OER education and outreach to campus faculty to boost OER program participation.

USU Libraries continues to develop highly relevant and directed advocacy for OER. Such advocacy work includes presenting information about OER at events like the “Library Road Shows” where USU subject librarians address faculty members at thirty-seven department retreats and meetings. At these events, librarians are able to highlight existing OER tailored to specific departments, and as a result there has been a significant increase in faculty interest and adoption of OER. Other advocacy work through the library includes a partnership with OpenStax, a nonprofit organization based out of Rice University. OpenStax provides valuable support and feedback for library faculty as they work to achieve OER goals and increase adoptions.

On the surface, OER saves students money on textbooks. On a deeper level, open education increases student achievement, inspires passion among faculty, and builds better connections between students and the materials they use to meet their educational goals. For all of these reasons the library and its partners support and will continue to support the use of OER at USU.

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

Set Education Free OER campaign

To spread awareness of OER across Utah State University, an overall awareness campaign was created. The theme of "Set Education Free" was created to promote awareness and adoption of OER. Corresponding marketing materials were created, including a revamped OER website. Marketing materials were distributed to faculty members at the Library Road Shows and at the ETE Conference.

Program Type:

Duration: 08/2016 - Present

Program Webpage: http://oer.usu.edu

Scope: Affordable course content, including cost-free course content and OER

Primary OER Strategy: OER Awareness

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

Unit Housing the Program:

Program Partners:

Source of Program Funding:

Total Program Funding to Date: $ 1,000

Total Student Savings to Date: $ 349,000

OER Committee

In 2015, USU Libraries partnered with Academic and Instructional Services (AIS) to further coordinate OER initiatives on campus. Results from this partnership included hiring an OER student research assistant to help discover relevant, high-quality OER for faculty and the creation a campus-wide OER steering committee. The OER Committee’s official charge is to increase “access and affordability to educational resources for students.” Drawing on the expertise of faculty, student government members, librarians, IT, and a campus bookstore representative, the committee develops and directs OER efforts across USU campus.

Program Type:

Duration: 01/2016 - Present

Program Webpage: http://oer.usu.edu

Scope: Cost-free course content, including OER

Primary OER Strategy: OER Awareness

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

Unit Housing the Program:

Program Partners:

Source of Program Funding:

Incentives Offered by the Program:

OER CHaSS Grant Program

The goal of the OER CHaSS Grant Initiative is to encourage instructor experimentation and innovation in finding new, better, and less costly ways to deliver learning materials to their students by using open educational resources in USU classrooms. Applicants may submit one of 3 different proposals to adopt, adapt, or create OER for their course. Selected recipients receive $500 to adopt, $1000 to adapt, and $3000 to create.

Program Type:

Duration: 11/2016 - Present

Program Webpage: https://ais.usu.edu/grants/oer

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, OER Review/Assessment, OER Research

Unit Housing the Program:

Program Partners:

Source of Program Funding:

Total Program Funding to Date: $ 20,000

Total Student Savings to Date: $ 70,378

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: $ 20,000

Total number of incentive grants awarded to date: 9

Typical amount of each grant: $ 1,000


OER Events

Empowering Teaching Excellence Conference

Librarians presented on open educational resources (OER) at the Empowering Teaching Excellence conference in August 2016. The presentation included information on how to integrate OER in courses and included example repositories and tips on how to get started with the adoption process.

Date: Aug. 15, 2016 - Aug. 15, 2016

Event Type:

Scope: Cost-free course content, including OER

Approximate Attendees: 40

Links:
Event Summary

Library Road Shows on OER

Librarians presented at over 35 faculty departmental retreats in August 2016. Each year the theme of the "road show" varies, and this year it was on open educational resources. The Library Coordinator of Regional Campuses and the OER Student Research Assistant developed the presentation and delivered it with the appropriate subject librarian for participating departments. Each presentation was customized for departments.

Date: Aug. 15, 2016 - Sept. 15, 2016

Event Type:

Scope: Affordable course content, including cost-free course content and OER

Approximate Attendees: 500

Links:
Promotional Material



Point of Contact

OER Team
Library Coordinator of Regional Campuses & E-Learning