Campus Entities Most Active in Efforts Advancing OER:

• Academic Department
• Academic/Information Technology
• Assistive Technology or Disability Services Office
• Campus Store
• E-Learning/Distance Education
• Faculty Champions(s)
• Faculty Senate or Union
• Library
• Senior Administration
• Student Government
• Student Services
• Teaching and Learning Center
• Other

Library Departments Active in Efforts Advancing OER:

• Administration
• Scholarly Communication
• Teaching & Learning

Academic Subjects With Greatest OER Traction:

• Architecture and construction
• Business and administration
• Chemistry
• Earth sciences
• Economics
• Engineering and engineering trades
• Environment
• Health (incl. medicine, nursing)
• Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
• Languages
• Library, information and archival studies
• Mathematics and statistics
• Physics
• Political sciences and civics
• Psychology

Mechanisms to Support OER Included in the Following:

• Campus Store Policy
• Course/Curriculum Design/Redesign
• Intellectual Property Policy
• Library Services
• Professional Development
• University Press/Publishing

OER Staff Location:

• Academic/Information Technology
• Library

Affordable Course Transformation, ACT, is a grant-based, affordable course transformation program for faculty teaching at all Penn State locations who want to transform a course to displace high cost published materials. Teaching and Learning with Technology Innovation and University Libraries will work with faculty to replace high-cost course materials with pedagogically sound open and affordable (under $50.00) content. Faculty will receive a monetary grant (multiple faculty working together will receive equal division of the total amount of the award), library, multimedia, and instructional design support, and assistance in production of affordable/open content.

Program Type:

• Grant Program

Duration: 05/2018 - Present

Program Webpage: http://oer.psu.edu/act/

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

Primary OER Strategy: OER Adaptation

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

Unit Housing the Program:

Library

Program Partners:

• Academic/Information Technology
• Senior Administration
• Teaching and Learning Center

Source of Program Funding:

• President, Chancellor, or Provost’s budget

Total Program Funding to Date: $ 45,000

Total Student Savings to Date: $ 1,177,709

Incentives Offered by the Program:

• Financial incentives (grants, stipends)
• Instructional design assistance
• Technical assistance
• Professional development

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

Total amount of incentive grants awarded to date: $ 45,000

Total number of incentive grants awarded to date: 35

Typical amount of each grant: $ 1,800

The team from the Penn State Abington Library created the Affordable Course Content Faculty Fellowship (ACCFF) using $5000 from a 2018 Albert and Suzanne Lord Chancellor’s Grant. The goal of the fellowship was to fund faculty for transitioning their course materials by adopting free or affordable course content (defined as under $50) such as Open Educational Resources (OERs), Open Textbooks, or library-licensed materials to address the high cost of course materials and the resultingimpact on student learning and success for students that cannot afford them

Program Type:

• Grant Program

Duration: 10/2018 - Present

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

Primary OER Strategy: OER Adoption

Unit Housing the Program:

Library

Program Partners:

• Academic/Information Technology
• Library
• Teaching and Learning Center

Source of Program Funding:

• President, Chancellor, or Provost’s budget

Total Program Funding to Date: $ 5,000

Total Student Savings to Date: $ 45,779

Incentives Offered by the Program:

• Financial incentives (grants, stipends)
• Instructional design assistance
• Technical assistance
• Other: Support in assessing the effect of resources selected

Total amount of incentive grants awarded to date: $ 3,500

Total number of incentive grants awarded to date: 7

Typical amount of each grant: $ 500

Links:
Other Resource

Penn State is committed to harnessing technology to expand access to knowledge and advance pedagogy through the open availability and open licensing of instructional materials and other materials. Making instructional materials openly available, including in some cases with an open license, helps to reduce course materials costs for students at Penn State, elsewhere in the Commonwealth, and beyond, fulfilling the University’s land-grant mission. The University and the broader world also benefit from open availability and open licensing of other materials produced at Penn State.

Further, units are encouraged to make university-owned instructional materials and other university-owned materials openly available when appropriate (e.g. increasing access not to the detriment of academic integrity), including University-directed works (see IP01). Owners of instructional materials not owned by the university are also encouraged to make these materials openly available. Open availability may include a Creative Commons or other public or open-source license. Whether to release a University-directed “academic” work under an open license shall be determined by the Head/Dean of the administrative unit, or their designate.

Duration: 1/2020 - Present

Policy Type: Formal Policy

Policy Scope: OER (open course content)

Governance Level: Institution wide

Links:
Policy Text