The Office of the State Board of Education (OSBE) is assembling a second cohort of OPAL Faculty Fellows and seeks general education faculty from Idaho's eight public postsecondary institutions to apply.
The OPAL Program supports three faculty teams across two years as they learn about, critically evaluate, collaboratively (re)develop, and even teach with Open Educational Resources (OER)—teaching, learning, and research materials that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license, such as a Creative Commons license, that permits free use and repurposing by others. The goal of the program is to develop faculty leaders in open and digital education.
Successful fellows have harbored the following characteristics:
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Strong interest in learning about open education and experimenting with OER
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Capacity and permission to pilot OER in their general education courses
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Willingness to evaluate, remix, and share relevant resources and/or practices with others
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Compassion when navigating the schedules, skills, and ideas of collaborators
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Dedication to attending weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly meetings with Rebus and OSBE staff
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Boldness in contributing to and eventually leading statewide OER conversations
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Availability to attend at least one professional conference, summit, or institute about OER
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Desire to actively mentor Idaho faculty, students, and others on topics related to open education
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Openness about sharing feedback and even researching the efficacy of OER in their/others' classes
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Enthusiasm about publishing and continuously improving OER at idaho.pressbooks.pub
Please contact Dr. Jonathan Lashley, Associate Chief Academic Officer for the Idaho State Board of Education, with any questions:
Jonathan.Lashley@osbe.idaho.govHour-long information sessions with Dr. Lashley and current fellows about this program are scheduled for November 5 and 12 at 10 AM Mountain. Register to attend at the following URL:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEqcu6rqTMuEtyPARYGKgKc6RYZAhZ7TDAm