Coordinating OER Efforts Across a Mid-Sized College Campus

Abstract

In 2018, the University of North Alabama (UNA) began to formalize its efforts to promote the use, creation, and adaptation of sustainable open educational resources (OER) on campus. UNA’s strategic plan for 2019-2024, Roaring with Excellence, aspires to have some form of OER integrated into at least half of all academic programs at the university. Following the lead of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education (ACHE), which had begun promoting OER statewide, the university was eager to assess the knowledge and use of OER on campus and to provide training and education to faculty to encourage the enhanced understanding and adoption of OER. A three-person informal working group formed on the university’s campus at the behest of the university president and provost. The make-up of the group included a scholarly communications librarian, a cataloging librarian serving as interim university librarian, and the director of the university’s Educational Technology Services (ETS). This paper details how the working group began to create a sustainable culture of OER on the university’s campus