1. THE OPEN HUB How Libraries Facilitate OER Jeremy Smith
Digital Projects Manager in Scholarly Communication
UMass Amherst
ACRL NEC Access Services Interest Group
Friday October 28, 2016

2. WHY OER?
The cost of textbooks has gone up and everyone is worried about it. Besides dozens of academic institutions implementing grants similar to ours, Government agencies and foundations are getting involved. US Senators Dick Durbin and Al Franken recently co-sponsored the Affordable College Textbook Act which would create a competitive grant program to support the creation and use of open college textbooks. The US Dept. of Education recently launched a campaign to encourage states, districts, and educators to adopt Open materials and with a requirement that recipients of Department grant funds have open licenses.

3. WHY OER?

4. WHY OER?
2014 survey of 264 UMass students in OEI classes

5. WHY OER?
2016 survey of 54 UMass students in OEI classes

6. FACULTY AWARENESS 2016 Babson Report
Opening the Textbook: OER in U.S. Higher Education,

7. OPEN EDUCATION INITIATIVE
SEEKING SOLUTIONS
Trends
US Fed departments (NIH, Dept. of Education) are writing OER practices into grant language
statewide initiatives kicking off (#GoOpen).
“z degrees” no textbook needed for entire degree.
Legislature funded programs.
OPEN EDUCATION INITIATIVE
(OEI)

8. The OEI is a faculty incentive program that encourages
The creation of new teaching materials and models
The use of existing open (free or low cost) information resources to support student learning
The use of library materials
The development of open technologies

9. COLLABORATION ACROSS CAMPUS
Libraries
Teaching Excellence & Faculty Development
Information Technology
Libraries
Schol Comm: individual consultations, workshops for OER, copyright, & open licensing
Liaison consultations to find resources and create new content
Circulation & reserves staff help to find subscription materials
Course Materials Affordability Working Group
Information Technology
Classroom technologies & hosting
Instructional technologies and experimentation. (e.g webpages, educational software, etc.)
Teaching Excellence & Faculty Development (Institute for Teaching & Faculty Development)
Suggest OER when faculty want to increase interactive learning
Support faculty creating new curriculum materials and scaffolding

10. LIBRARY OER WEBSITE

11. SUCCESS STORIES Randal Knoper Miliann Kang Hossein Pishro-Nik
English 269: American Literature and Culture after 1865
Cost Savings to date: $2,660
Miliann Kang
Women's Studies 187: Gender, Sexuality and Culture
Cost Savings to date: $8,475
Hossein Pishro-Nik
Electrical and Computer Engineering 314: Introduction to Probability and Random Processes
Cost Savings to date: $25,833
Knoper: offered a $10 Anthology of American Literature Vol. II ; supplemented with library videos

12. OUTCOMES

13. Student savings Over 5 years Since 2011
$1.3 million
Student savings
$100,000 invested
Over 5 years
7,000 students, 60+ faculty & 100 classes
Since 2011

14. OER Assessment

15. OER Barriers Lack of awareness Time No single catalog of OER
Lack of ancillary content
Time commitment of support staff
Getting beyond the “pilot” phase

16. OER Future Goals

17. THANKS! Any questions? You can find me at: @youthelectronix