College and university advocates for open educational resources (OER) increasingly find that work combined and aligned with broader campus efforts aimed at reducing the cost burden of course materials for students. In such cases, it is crucial that OER advocates are able to support their discovery, use, and creation as one component of a multi-pronged affordability plan that can obtain buy-in from students, administrators, and faculty from across the academic divisions. In this presentation I will explain the development of such an initiative, led by the Franklin & Marshall College Library, and its implementation in collaboration with members of our student government and a committee comprised of faculty, students, and professional staff.
A major focus of the new initiative has been fact gathering, and I will discuss the results of two successful surveys conducted last academic year. The 2019 Faculty Course Materials Survey and the 2020 Student Textbook Spending Survey were designed to be complementary and capture as complete a picture as possible of the situation at Franklin & Marshall. They were also created with the goal of finding ways to immediately improve the situation for those students who were going without required books and other materials due to cost, or were having their course selection and performance negatively impacted by the incredibly high costs of materials. I will also share some of the actionable steps which we have identified and are recommending based on the survey results. I will conclude with practical advice for others interested in starting or expanding one on their campus.
Learning Outcomes: Attendees will learn 1) how to connect OER to the issue of affordability, 2) ways to conduct surveys of faculty and students which provide data valuable to OER and affordability advocacy, and 3) ideas for how to build faculty support for OER and various affordability strategies they can employ.
