Great strides have been made in the creation and adoption of open educational resources.Perceived challenges to finding open educational resources has continued to be a barrier as the number of resources grow. In the Open Textbook Library, the number of open textbooks has increased from just 80 in 2012 to 790 in 2020. However, discovery has become a pain point among advocates and adopting instructors to the degree that commercial textbook publishers are using language in their product messaging that OER is hard to find. State legislation in the United States also focuses on building or examining state repositories to increase discovery.
This panel will explore OER Discovery as a growth area. It will feature a high level discussion about the specific needs and possible solution(s) for finding, storing and accessing open textbooks and beyond. The discussion will also explore challenges, successes, and the silos that exist among initiatives led by the OER community. Panelists are leaders in OER with a history of addressing this barrier and/or lead new projects and initiatives to enhance OER Discovery.
Wally Grotophorst, Associate University Librarian, George Mason University/Mason Metafinder
Creator of the Mason OER Metafinder, Wally will discuss the challenges and opportunities that accompany federated searching for OER content.
Michelle Brennan, OER Information Services Manager, Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME)/OER Commons
Michelle leads research and development of information and library services for ISKME’s OER Commons platform and Partner Library Microsites. Michelle will discuss challenges in supporting libraries and librarians in creating and curating OER that meets the unique teaching and learning needs of faculty adopters at a consortial scale.
Karen Lauritsen, Publishing Director, Open Education Network Karen manages the Open Textbook Library, which offers live MARC records for discovery. This year the OTL worked with OCLC to include its records in WorldCat.
Camille Thomas, Lead, SPARC OER Discovery Initiative and Scholarly Communication Librarian at Florida State University
Camille will discuss working with SPARC to connect with existing leaders (e.g. OER repository directors, metadata librarians, OER researchers and OER advocacy organizations) to leverage the work already being done.
Learning Outcomes: Attendees will be able to describe how metadata enables discovery and current needs for OER Attendees may interpret the discussion and employ future action items (e.g. talking points, further discussion) based on insights Attendees may become better equipped to discuss OER Discovery at their own institutions or organizations
