
Event Title
Herding Cats to OER: Overhauling a General Education Curriculum
Presentation Type
Presentation
Location
Zoom (Link to be provided on presentation day)
Start Date
24-10-2023 2:00 PM
End Date
24-10-2023 2:45 PM
Description
In this session, learn how librarians at Concordia University, St. Paul helped lead an initiative to implement OERs throughout the university’s General Education (GE) curriculum. During the summer term, librarians — along with instructional designers and the LMS team — updated thirteen courses, reworking the curriculum, reenvisioning assignments, and replacing traditional course materials with open or library-licensed content. This initiative resulted in more than $110,000 in savings per semester for full-time students.
Throughout the process, librarians encountered many challenges, including resistance from faculty, replacing entrenched ancillary materials from major publishers (quizzes, labs, etc.), and managing expectations. And while the initiative was an overall success, we learned valuable lessons about managing faculty relationships and prioritizing sustainability in our workflows that other librarians can use to successfully implement OERs in their own institutions.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Dan Hoiland headshot
sq-SBrewerheadshot-1439.jpg (584 kB)
Silas Brewer headshot
Staff_Elizabeth-Jacobson_BIO_pic.jpg (6 kB)
Elizabeth Jacobson headshot
Herding Cats to OER: Overhauling a General Education Curriculum
Zoom (Link to be provided on presentation day)
In this session, learn how librarians at Concordia University, St. Paul helped lead an initiative to implement OERs throughout the university’s General Education (GE) curriculum. During the summer term, librarians — along with instructional designers and the LMS team — updated thirteen courses, reworking the curriculum, reenvisioning assignments, and replacing traditional course materials with open or library-licensed content. This initiative resulted in more than $110,000 in savings per semester for full-time students.
Throughout the process, librarians encountered many challenges, including resistance from faculty, replacing entrenched ancillary materials from major publishers (quizzes, labs, etc.), and managing expectations. And while the initiative was an overall success, we learned valuable lessons about managing faculty relationships and prioritizing sustainability in our workflows that other librarians can use to successfully implement OERs in their own institutions.