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Starting a Local Consortium to Support OER

Creative Commons Lightning Talk

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Nathan Smith, OER Coordinator, Houston Community College

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“Houston Skyline” by Nathan Smith, CC-BY 4.0

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History of the HAOER Consortium

  • Tonja Conerly, San Jacinto College, initiated conversations around a local organization to support OER
  • Fall of 2017, key planners:
    • Houston Community College (Dr. Nathan Smith)
    • University of Houston - Central Campus (Adriana Santiago) and
    • San Jacinto College (Tonja Conerly)
  • Contacted colleges and universities in the Houston-Galveston area
  • 1st meeting: Houston Community College, June 2018.

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Meeting Structure

  • Share resources and best practices
  • Support each institution in meeting their OER goals
  • A typical meeting includes a guest speaker, OER updates, and a member presentation
  • Meetings held on the last Tuesday of the month, from 12:00 - 1:30 PM
    • Prior to COVID, we would rotate location among institutions
    • Host institution would provide lunch
  • Currently, meetings are held virtually with the same format

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Current membership

The membership of HAOER consist of 2 year and 4 year institutions. Members include faculty, staff and administrators from the following institutions:

Alvin Community College

Houston Community College

Lee College

Lone Star College

Prairie View A & M University

San Jacinto College

Rice University

Texas A & M University

Texas Southern University

University of Houston - Clear Lake

University of Houston - Downtown

University of Houston - Central Campus

City of Houston - Education Department

University of St. Thomas

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Bylaws and governance

Bylaws available on our website here.

Key decision points:

  1. Mission statement
  2. Membership and voting members
  3. Officers and elections
  4. Meetings
  5. Additional needs/updates:
    1. Secretary and treasurer
    2. Incorporation as 501c(3)

"Houston City Hall" by eschipul is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

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Building a web presence

Development of a website is a primary project identified by the group

Create a logo

Buy a domain and hosting service (Bluehost): https://houstonoer.com/

Subcommittee to develop and upload content

Cost -- pushing further decisions:

  • Treasurer position
  • 501c(3) incorporation

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Working with city and state partners

DigiTex

Texas Digital Libraries

Open Texas 2021

City Of Houston Education Department

Harris County Education Department

Young Invincibles

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Member Testimonials

Dr. Musa Olaka, Director of Libraries, Prarie View A&M University - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7axIlixhhg

Loan Nguyen, Electronic Resources Librarian, University of St Thomas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYaoLuydLC4

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Contact me: nathan.smith2@hccs.edu

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