OpenEd20

While there are open education continuing education programs for practicing librarians, there were no known courses focusing on open education in any of the ALA-accredited library science programs. This presentation will focus on the development and delivery of an online, one-credit course in Open Education Librarianship for the San Jose State University iSchool. Attendees will learn about the nature of the course, its learning objectives, structure and content.

The course was first proposed in January 2020 and accepted by the San Jose State University iSchool curriculum committee in February 2020. While the iSchool already offered a course in scholarly communication librarianship that offered an introduction to open access, the program director believed that students would want an even more in depth course focusing specifically on open education. The course was developed between March and May2020 and launched in July 2020. The initial enrollment for the course met the maximum number of 35 students shortly after registration for summer 2020 courses opened, indicating the level of student interest in this course.

The four-week course is designed to introduce student to two primary open education topics, open education resources and open pedagogy. Topics covered in the course include:
•Textbook crisis
•Open textbook publishing model
•Advocacy for open textbooks
•Role of the Open Education Librarian
•Open pedagogy projects
•Designing and delivering open education workshops
•Busting OER myths
•Understanding “free’ vs “open”
•DEI in open education
•Open education research
•Getting to know open education advocates

The presentation will also discuss what types of assignments and projects are used to expose students to the type of work that Open Education Librarians perform. The presenter will share student reactions to the course, how effectively it met their expectation for learning about open education and whether the course encouraged them to consider open education as a career path in librarianship.

To encourage aspiring librarians to develop an appreciation of or passion for open education it is desirable to incorporate it into the LIS curriculum. This presentation will consider the potential and effectiveness of this approach for developing the next generation of Open Education Librarian.


Learning Outcomes:
* Identifying the students enrolled in library and information science programs as future participants in and leaders in open education;
* Leveraging current library and information science students interest in social justice and diversity movements to create a new generation of open education advocates;
* Components of an open education course for LIS students and student reaction to participating in an open education course (how might it impact their future career path decisions).