Open Educational Resources Committee Meeting: November 18, 2021

Zoom / Conference Call

Members attending: Denise Cote (College of DuPage), Kim Hale (Columbia College Chicago), Dan Matthews, co-chair (Moraine Valley Community College), Christina Norton (Bradley University), Tineka Scalzo (City Colleges of Chicago), Janet Swatscheno (University of Illinois Chicago), Chris Sweet, co-chair (Illinois Wesleyan University), Tamara Townsend (City Colleges of Chicago)

Members absent: Amber Burtis (Southern Illinois University Carbondale), Catherine Galarza-Espino (Morton College)

CARLI Staff attending: Elizabeth Clarage, Michele Leigh

Board Liaison: Jacob Jeremiah (Oakton Community College)

Decisions

• Minutes from October meeting reviewed and accepted.
• Agenda item proposal by Kim Hale: How to start an institutional OER program.
• Committee decided to review the content of the CARLI OER Faculty Workshop.
• Committee decided that for upcoming OER Office Hours, one committee member would facilitate the discussion, and another would take notes so that an overview of the session may be shared with members.

Tasks Assigned

• Minutes taken by Denise Cote.
• Kim, Tamara, Christina, Dan and CARLI staff will review the content of the CARLI OER Faculty Workshop.
• For the December OER Office Hours, Tineka will be the facilitator and Janet will take notes.

Announcements

• Member Announcements:
  • Chris Sweet (Illinois Wesleyan University): He is interested in the work of the Midwest Higher Education Compact (MHEC). Chris has recently joined them as an OER committee member. Denise Cote (College of DuPage). She is a member of the OER & CTE committees. Michele Leigh is a member of the OER Technology committee. Elizabeth commented that typically MHEC focuses on upper-level administration. MHEC also does some consortial buying of services for member institutions.
  • Tineka Scalzo (City Colleges of Chicago): Her institution is beginning a college wide OER committee.
  • Dan Matthews (Moraine Valley Community College): the IACRL Spark event has been postponed. It will be rescheduled for May.
  • Christina Norton (Bradley University): She was able to secure support for a monthly community of practice initiative at Bradley.
• CARLI Announcements:
  • Michele Leigh (CARLI): CARLI is very close to finishing the application process for the Illinois SCOERs grant.
  • Elizabeth announced that she created a listing of all the CARLI OER events and other OER-related conferences and events. This is not a comprehensive list. Members are invited to notify Elizabeth of events to be added to this page: https://www.carli.illinois.edu/oer-continuing-education

Discussion

• OER Continuing Education
  • Discussion: There are prep sessions for each instructor group and content (slides, etc.) are provided.
  • CARLI OER Course: Enrollment is healthy so far. Deadline for enrollment is Monday November 22 but if space is available, registration will be extended. These events will be announced in an upcoming CARLI newsletter.
  • CARLI FACULTY Workshop: This content needs to be reviewed. Workshop content reviewers will be: Kim, Tamara, Christina, and Dan. Suggested edit and updates will be sent to Elizabeth.
  • CARLI OER Course:
    • December 1, 8, 15, 11am-12:30pm (instructors: Charlene Snelling & Chris Sweet) - Scheduled and Registration is live
    • December 2, 9, 16, 2:30-4pm (instructors: Denise Cote & Michelle Oh) - Scheduled and Registration is live
    • February 8, 15, 22, 2:30-4pm (instructors: Anne Chernaik & Kim Hale)
    • May 17, 24, 31, 11am-12:30pm (instructors: Thane Montaner & Anne Shelley)
  • CARLI OER Faculty Workshop:
    • January 27, 2022. Noon – 2pm (instructors: Dan Matthews & Tamara Townsend)
    • February 23, 2022, 11am – 1pm (instructors: Amber Burtis & Catherine Galarza-Espino)
    • March 30, 2022, 11am – 1pm (instructors: Christina Norton & Sue Shultz)
  • OER Office Hours
    • Debrief and thoughts for December 14th, the subject was “Openwashing.” Attendance was good, around 12 people. There was a robust discussion.
    • Future Dates/Topics?
      • Office Hours for Spring: February 2022.
      • Proposed Topics:
      • Accrediting agency requirements and faculty perceptions of transfer curriculum textbook requirements
      • Library-owned ebooks as replacements for textbooks and how do publisher ebooks licenses help or hinder this aspect of library support of textbook affordability?
      • How we started our OER program?
      • About the Open Illinois OER Commons Hub and the Author Tool
      • Advice from experienced OER librarians
      • How to obtain funding and how to expend it
      • Accessibility of OER materials
      • Faculty/Student OER Collaborations
      • State-wide appropriations for Textbook Affordability: How do librarians lobby?
    • Should we publish key points and takeaways of the Office Hour meetings? Discussion ensued about having the meeting summary be a new element of the Office Hours offering and also determining a different scheduling scheme. On December 14, 1:00 p.m. Janet Swatscheno volunteered to take notes for distribution to membership. Tineka Scalzo will be the facilitator of this session.  
  • How to start an institutional OER program (Kim Hale) Discussed under Office Hours item--could be a potential workshop / full program.  
  • Grant programming: Tabled for next meeting.
• Illinois SCOERs updates (CARLI)
  • Michele announced Grant workshops will be held on December 14, January 18, and January 26. These will be on the CARLI Events calendar later this week. Application and process is nearly complete. CARLI was awarded a grant from the Illinois Secretary of State/Illinois State Library to purchase 3D printers and materials for awardees. As part of the grant program, 3D printing training will be offered. Discussion ensued about educational technology / instructional design training on using 3D printing in teaching. This information will be included in the Grant workshops.
• Open Illinois – OER Commons Hub Update
  • Open Author Training: December 9, 1-2pm
  • CARLI is working on the registration for this event. Would like to open this training up to all CARLI members. Send questions about Open Author to Elizabeth.
• Funding for statewide OER adoption grants?
  • Furthering conversation from last meeting. Chris Sweet would like to keep this on the agenda. The Illinois Library Association has a Public Policy Committee that we can lobby. An idea is that that other types of libraries in the state receive per capita grants from the Illinois Secretary of State/Illinois State Library but there is not a similar program for academic libraries. Denise shared SPARC’s website that tracks state OER policies.

Next Meeting Dates and Deadlines

The next committee meeting is December 16, 2021 at 1-2:30pm.

Upcoming meeting dates:
January 20, 2022
February 17, 2022
March 17, 2022
April 21, 2022
May 19, 2022
June 16, 2022