SPARC Projects

Connect OER

Open Education

Clemson University

Clemson, SC, United States
Official Website • @ClemsonUniv

Type: Public 4-Year, Research University
Annual Enrollment: 21,857

  SPARC Member  

OER Webpage
OER LibGuide

Overview

Clemson University is a public, land-grant university in South Carolina with approximately 23,000 graduate and undergraduate students. Our first official engagement with Open Education was in November 2014, when the Clemson Libraries and Clemson Online (distance education department) co-sponsored an invited presentation by Dr. Cable Green. In early 2016, thanks to the Libraries’ membership in SPARC, we sponsored a faculty member from the College of Education to participate in OpenCon. On his return, he addressed the campus community on “Making the Most of Open Educational Resources.” Then, in the summer of 2016, the Libraries dedicated 40% of a new position, the Undergraduate Instruction and Open Educational Resources Librarian, to promoting and supporting Open Education on campus. In October 2016, we celebrated Open Access Week with a pizza party for students featuring a virtual presentation by SPARC’s own Brady Yano and informal data collection about textbooks costs, as well as presentations for faculty about Open Access publishing and OER options. Two librarians attended OpenEd and OpenCon in 2016 to further connect with the Open community. By the start of 2017, we had also made several important connections on campus, working with the Clemson Undergraduate Student Government (CUSG) to support their passage of a Resolution in Support of OER and presenting to the Faculty Senate about both financial and pedagogical benefits of OER. We worked closely with our allies in student government to celebrate Open Education Week in March 2017 and encourage student advocacy. We also joined the Open Textbook Network and look forward to hosting their on-campus workshop in September. Most significantly, the University Libraries and Clemson Online joined forces to create a faculty stipend program. We offered $2,000 stipends to one faculty member in each of Clemson’s seven colleges in exchange for their replacement of traditional resources with OER in a Fall 2017 course. We evaluated the stipend applications on projected student savings and the feasibility of the proposed implementation. In May 2017, we awarded six stipends, and we expect a return of approximately $100,000 in student savings this fall. The Undergraduate Instruction and OER Librarian, along with the Head of Digital Scholarship in the Libraries and our partners at Clemson Online, continue to provide support for faculty members and to publicize Open initiatives. Our goals for Fall 2017 include surveying faculty to collect better data on OER use across the University, and we hope to offer a second round of OER stipends next year.

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:



Point of Contact

Chris Vinson
OER Librarian