This session is about the process used at Trine University, a small, private, not for profit university, to offer courses using Open Educational Resources (OER). Trine has gone from zero OER courses to 46 in one year, a phenomenal rate of implementation that is saving their students significant money where course materials are concerned. The presenters will discuss the importance of getting buy-in from key stakeholders such as faculty who will be asked to develop and use OERs for their classes and university administrators who will be involved in approving funding for such course development. In addition to the importance of constituent buy-in, the presenters will provide information on the process of selecting the right course designers and deciding on which courses to begin with as OER development is rolled out. They will further elaborate upon OER course development and the possibility for Z-programs (i.e., degree programs where all of the content-specific courses within the major utilize OER materials). These Z-degrees are attractive to prospective students in that all of the course materials are free of charge to them, which has positive marketing implications for the university. Lastly, the presenters will discuss how student and faculty feedback is used to improve the use of OER materials in an effort to close the assessment loop for these courses. The presentation will conclude with a question and answer session to enable participants an opportunity to reflect upon the content of the talk as well as to interact with the presenters to gain clarification on any points of interest to them.
Learning Outcomes: By the end of this session participants will be able to do the following within their institutional context: 1. Develop a rationale for the use of OERs 2. Identify key stakeholders and form an OER committee 3. Advocate for financial incentives for developing OER courses 4. Access fundamental OER websites such as OpenStax, OER Commons, Merlot, and so on as a starting point for developing OER materials 5. Promote mapping of activities to learning outcomes 6. Track OER effectiveness.
