For years, the library at Western Colorado University facilitated several individual OER adoptions across at least ten disciplines. In 2019, the library leveraged those past successes to imagine and propose a fundamental shift across a whole discipline.
The library identified a scaffolded program that was poised to adapt to a more dynamic curriculum--one that would impact all students throughout multiple courses. After gaining the support of the chair and the directors of the program, the library secured funding and helped assembled a team of instructors within the department to identify open resources upon which they could reinvent their curriculum.
This new Gen Ed curriculum, built entirely on open resources and designed to adapt to changes in the discipline as well as the world around us, will be adopted by all faculty by the Spring of 2021. It will impact every student at Western.
Our discussion will highlight the steps we took along the way to encourage others to adapt when we had no positional power in any given department. Adopted by all faculty, impact every single student at WCU moving forward.
Learning Outcomes: Recognize when to alter your strategy from one-off adoptions to programmatic change Identify chairs and program directors who are open to adaptation Assemble a diverse team to design curriculum Identify funding
