Identification and discovery of appropriate, high quality open educational resources (OER) is a significant challenge for faculty and often a barrier to adoption. In response, the VIVA OER Course Mapping Project Task Force is reimagining how faculty find OER appropriate for general education courses by developing a listing through VIVA Open, an OER Commons microsite, that aligns with Transfer Virginia courses. Transfer Virginia, led by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) and the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), is a collaboration between institutions of higher education, intended to reform the transfer experience by removing barriers to transfer from two-year to four-year institutions in a more affordable, efficient, and equitable manner.
Without a Virginia common course catalog, partnering with the Transfer Virginia initiative has afforded the Course Mapping Task Force access to course templates drafted by Virginia faculty that outline objectives, topics, and learning outcomes. Since VCCS courses are high enrollment, general education courses, the Task Force expects the mapped materials will also benefit lower-level courses at four-year public and private institutions in Virginia. Expansion of the Course Mapping Project to include general education courses at 4-year institutions will determine if this assumption is correct.
Faculty engagement and review of the selected OER are also essential in determining the success of the project. Thus, Virginia faculty are invited to “sprint” review the OER for quality of explanation of subject matter and comprehensiveness. The results are increased engagement with and among Virginia faculty, exposure to available OER in their discipline, a faculty reviewed seal of approval, and greater insight into their valuation of curated OER.
Learning Outcomes: Key takeaways include outlining the challenges and steps involved in implementing and coordinating the various elements of a large scale Course Mapping Project that can be adapted to other institutional or consortial situations. Participants will also learn about the value of engaging faculty in OER reviews that relate directly to the curriculum.
