OER Fellowship Planning-Arizona Western College History & Beyond
Overview
OER Fellows are invited to remix this OER Fellowship Planning Template to articulate a) a plan to assess your institution's current state of OER awareness and implementation b) your goals for OER adoption and use, and their targeted success indicators; c) a plan for building and engaging your OER Coalition, Programs, and Partnerships; d) a plan for the development and roll out of campus-level policies, guidelines, and resolutions in support of OER; d) an OER outreach and advocacy plan; and e) a plan for building capacity of your OER initiative.
Introduction
In 2018, Arizona Western College unveiled a strategic plan that included offering open educational resources in 50% of all courses by 2022 to eliminate cultural, financial, time, and place barriers to education. However, OER at AWC is defined as materials priced under $45, not strictly open. There have also been questions about the actual number of courses that are using OER since the college no longer has a campus bookstore, decentralizing textbook, and access code purchases over the past year.
Research I conducted within the past 12 months indicated that faculty have mixed feelings about adopting OER when resources are available, with the greatest barriers to adoption being a lack of ancillary materials and perceptions about quality. Other barriers to adoption are the lack of appropriate materials for certain disciplines and the need for more training.
All courses for which OER textbooks are available in the History department use OER, and one course has been developed from scratch. Two classes still need OER materials.
Beyond the History program, expanding awareness and adoption of OER across the institution is something I am particularly interested in supporting through collaboration with other faculty and our academic library staff.
Analyzing the OER Landscape
OER Adoption and Opportunities in History at AWC
At present, all History full-time and part-time faculty use OpenStax U.S. History for HIS 121-US History to 1877 and HIS 122-US History Since 1877. All other courses are taught by two full-time faculty. OER textbooks are used for HIS 240 and HIS 241 (Western Civ 1 & 2) and HIS 110 and HIS 111 (World History to 1500 & World History Since 1500). A custom OER was developed for HIS 280-History of Mexico. HIS 220-History of Arizona uses a book that is priced under $25, and HIS 230-Women in American History uses an access code that is under $40, so they are designated as OER at the college but use commercial materials.
All of the courses are designated as OER on the course schedule; however, it is unclear whether students are using the filters to search for OER courses. Under the textbook assignments, the courses that use OER materials are marked with the phrase "OER Course Materials-Access free of charge in your Canvas course."
In addition to OER textbooks, instructors use the National Archives, Library of Congress, World History Commons, OER Commons, and other repositories for primary sources and OER lessons.
None of the work to adopt OER for history courses was funded by the college. Faculty in the history department tend to seek out professional development outside the institution and were early adopters of OER. Grant opportunities were not well-publicized and were made available after the faculty already adopted OER. COVID and an administrative reorganization disrupted the structure of the training and OER initiative, so there was a period during which communication about opportunities for assistance with OER development was lacking.
The History of Mexico book was written over the summer by a faculty member with no funding.
Future OER development projects include HIS 230-Women in American History (goal: OER by Spring 2025) and HIS 220-History of Arizona (goal: OER by Winter 2025).
Opportunities Beyond the History Department
Some departments, such as psychology, sociology, chemistry, biology, and statistics, have adopted OER textbooks and open software, while other departments, such as business, philosophy, political science, family sciences, and vocational programs have continued to use commercial textbooks, even when open textbooks are available.
It is important to consider that as community college faculty, our teaching loads are heavy and most teach overload, so adopting OER will be encouraged over developing OER when funding is minimal or nonexistent. Focusing on courses for which quality OER already exist to increase the number of faculty using OER is key.
OER Goals & Success Indicators
OER Goals
OER Goal 1: Develop OER for remaining two History courses (HIS 230 and HIS 220) by Dec 2025 so that all HIS courses are OER.
OER Goal 2: Increase faculty OER adoption across the institution by 10% focusing on courses for which OER textbooks already exist.
OER Goal 3: Support adjunct and dual enrollment instructors in my discipline in adopting and adapting OER.
OER Goal 4: Collaborate with Academic Library and Faculty Development Coordinator to deliver professional development to faculty and staff on OER topics throughout the academic year.
OER Success Indicators
Partnership Growth
- Number or new or expanded partnerships
- Number of individuals adopting the project at the district or school level
Increased Awareness & Reach
- Number of social media mentions about an initiative/project
- Number of speaking engagements about the project
Growth in an OER Collection
- Number of new resources added
Impact on Teaching & Learning
- Faculty and staff trained in OER
- Faculty course adoptions, remixes, and creations
- Faculty and student perceptions of OER
Cost & Other Efficiencies
- Data showing a decrease in student spending on course materials
Building & Engaging Our OER Coalition, Programs, and Partnerships
OER Coalition
Campus Role | Goals and Areas of Interest and Expertise |
Librarians | Affordable learning, copyright, faculty development, discovery, and curation |
Faculty Adopters | Equitable student success, equitable student access, academic freedom, course enrollments, engaging curriculum that is locally and culturally relevant, supporting social justice through open pedagogy, high-quality textbooks, readings, and ancillary materials |
Instructional Designers | Course design, copyright permissions, accessibility |
Administrators | Retention rates, student feedback, enrollments, equitable student success |
Student Leaders | Cost savings, quality of curriculum, student engagement in courses, accessibility, equitable access to materials, relevant materials, belonging |
OER Outreach & Advocacy Plan
Audience and outreach goals - My audience is faculty at my institution who have yet to adopt OER with the intention of encouraging them to explore and consider adopting OER for their courses.
Content of outreach – First, I want to share my positive experience in adopting OER: not beholden to textbook publishers, incorporating culturally relevant content, customization of course content and assessments, student success, and positive student feedback). Second, I want to provide useful training and resources to faculty to facilitate and support their adoption of OER. Faculty want training, but it needs to be relevant, convenient, and in digestible amounts.
Outreach method(s) – Professional development workshops in collaboration with the Academic Library and one-on-one discussions.
Call to Action: outcome and impact – I would like to see faculty across the institution fully or partially adopt OER for their courses and more awareness in general about the institutional resources we have to support OER creation and adoption. We have a student experience statement at our college and #studentsfirst is often used to tout how much we support students. What better way to put #studentsfirst and support their learning than through the adoption of OER?!
OER Capacity Building
Professional Learning Opportunities
- OER Academies & Fellowship Program
OER Conferences
Open Ed Week March 4-8, 2024
Open Ed Virtual Conference October 8-10, 2024