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Higher Education in a

Post-COVID World

VIRTUAL CONFERENCE

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Leveraging OER for Student Centered Flexibility

Rob Nyland, PhD.

Research & Innovation Team Manager

Boise State University

Portions adapted from OTN Workshop, By David Ernst. Content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Flexible Teaching for Student Success

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Achieving Flexible through Open Educational Resources

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What are OER?

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Open educational resources (OER) are free, openly-licensed materials that permit use, revision, and redistribution. While the benefits of OER are available to all learners and educators, OER draws on the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. As such, it is developed for the empowerment and with the participation of marginalized learners who may be underrepresented in educational contexts.

-Boise State Definition of OER

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What does OER look like?

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What do students value in their course materials?

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Values that should be reflected in course materials

Affordability and Access
Inclusivity and Accessibility

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OER is best the way to maximize student values

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Value 1: Affordability and Access

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http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/freshman-year/college-textbook-prices-have-risen-812-percent-1978-n399926

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http://www.openaccesstextbooks.org/pdf/2012_Florida_Student_Textbook_Survey.pdf

In your academic career, has the cost of required textbooks caused you to:

2012	2016
63.6%	66.5%	Not purchase the required textbook
49.2%	47.6%	Take fewer courses
45.1%	45.5%	Not register for a specific course
33.9%	37.6%	Earn a poor grade
26.7%	26.1%	Drop a course
17.0%	19.8%	Fail a course

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OER provides day 1 & perpetual access

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Value 2: Inclusivity and Accessibility

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Boise State Last Girl Framework

The Last Girl is a concept and strategic framework that operates with historically marginalized members of our community centered at decision making processes. The rationale is that the liberation of oppressed identities ultimately works toward true inclusion.

Every action of the council must not jeopardize, out, or cause harm to the most marginalized of our communities.

https://www.boisestate.edu/asbsu/envision-2018/

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How can OER facilitate inclusion?

Flexibility in the curriculum to bring in representational images, authors, and examples
Allows us to center historically marginalized voices in the co-creation of new forms of knowledge

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How can OER facilitate accessibility?

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Building a Groundwork for OER at Boise State

COALITION

Creation of Boise State OER Group -- Faculty and Staff representing various units from across campus

RESOURCES

Hired a full-time OER Coordinator to help with the integration of OER into online courses
Joined Open Textbook Network
Purchased Pressbooks

INCENTIVES

25K pledged from the State Board to support the development of OER

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Reaping the Rewards

Adoption of Chemistry OER Text in high-enrollment sections
Sharing of OER materials across First Year Writing Program
Greater organic awareness of OER with a desire to adopt in the future

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Key Takeaways

OER maximize flexibility with learning materials
OER allow us to address student values meaningfully in a way that is not otherwise possible
Key investments are needed to get OER initiatives off of the ground

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Questions?

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Tell us your feedback

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Brainstorm Ideas