Campus Entities Most Active in Efforts Advancing OER:

• Faculty Champions(s)
• Library
• Student Government
• Teaching and Learning Center

Library Departments Active in Efforts Advancing OER:

• Public Service/Reference

Academic Subjects With Greatest OER Traction:

• Physics
• Psychology

The purpose of this RFP, administered by the University of Hartford's OER Committee, is to support faculty in the use, adaptation, or creation of Open Educational Resources (OER) with the goals of increasing student access to rich course content, lowering the cost of textbooks for students, and ultimately improving student learning. OER are openly-licensed educational materials that are low-to-no cost to students. Priority will be given to projects that impact that greatest number of students and in courses with traditionally high textbook costs. Grants will range depending on the complexity and impact of project. These funds can be allocated as stipends and/or used to purchase materials to support the development of the project. Currently, five projects are underway and will be piloted in the 2018-2019 academic year.

Program Type:

• Grant Program

Duration: 12/2017 - Present

Program Webpage: http://library.hartford.edu/open-educational-resources/oer-grant-opportunity.aspx

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

Primary OER Strategy: OER Adaptation

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

Unit Housing the Program:

Library

Source of Program Funding:

• Student Fees
• Other: ITEC (Information Technology Executive Council)

Total Program Funding to Date: $ 5,000

Incentives Offered by the Program:

• Not applicable

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

Total amount of incentive grants awarded to date: $ 5,000

Faculty and staff were invited to attend a Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation Learn@Lunch titled "OER 101: The Basics and Benefits of Open Education Resources" to hear from UHart faculty already using OER and to learn about the OpenStax Institutional partnership program to which the University had been accepted. Jillian Maynard, co-chair of the OER Committee, spoke about OER and the progress being made at the University. Prof. James McDonald and Prof. Ivana Milanovic, two faculty using OER extensively, spoke about their experiences. At the end of the session, faculty in attendance were given the chance to look at OER textbooks and online materials and discuss them in small groups.

Date: Nov. 11, 2017

Event Type:

• Workshop/Professional Development

Event themes:

• OpenCon Satellite Event

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

Approximate Attendees: 15

Links:
Promotional Material

The OER Workshop, organized by the OER Committee, was a chance to increase awareness about OER and answer faculty questions. It was open to faculty and staff from the University of Hartford and other CT colleges and universities. The day began with an introduction from co-chair Jillian Maynard. Keynote speaker Kevin Corcoran, Executive Director of the Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium (CTDLC) spoke about the state of OER in Connecticut and the country overall. The five faculty/faculty teams with grant projects underway through the OER Grant program gave brief overviews of their projects. A student panel comprised of three individuals a part of the Student Government Program spoke about their own experiences with high textbook costs and took questions from the audience as well. And finally, Laura Quilter, Copyright and Information Policy Librarian at UMASS-Amherst led an interactive session about Creative Commons and copyright.

Date: March 30, 2018

Event Type:

• Workshop/Professional Development

Event themes:

• Open Education Week

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

Approximate Attendees: 26

Links:
Promotional Material

Go To Resource

This is a landing spot for all things OER related at the University of Hartford. It has a description of the committee and lists committee members, and also explains the OER grant and it's current awardees and their projects. Eventually, we hope to have their completed projects available on this page. Additionally, it has a "Getting Started" page explaining how an interested faculty member could begin the process of exploring and hopefully finding useful OER for their courses.

Resource Permissions:
All Rights Reserved

Resource Citation:
Maynard, Jillian. (2018). Open Educational Resources (OER). [Website]. Retrieved from http://library.hartford.edu/open-educational-resources/default.aspx.

Go To Resource

This guide gives a background of OER for interested faculty and also lists different repositories and organizes OER by discipline. It is a constant work in progress.

Resource Permissions:
CC BY

Resource Citation:
Maynard, Jillian. (2016). Open Educational Resources (OER). [Libguide]. Retrieved from http://libguides.hartford.edu/OER/Home