International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 153

A Community-Based Collaborative of OER programs
research-led, Teaching Academy members
recognize that OER not only alleviates
high text costs, but also supports inclusivity
by removing financial barriers
to course materials, allowing students
to engage in course and content from
day 1, and is authored by leading professors
and scholars in the field. When
we launched the “moonshot” challenge
during Spring 2019 finals week to the
Teaching Academy, faculty calculated
how much they could save students by
redesigning a course and unprompted,
began pledging their support to the
challenge.
To support interested faculty in
the Teaching Academy and at large, we
leverage our Open Oregon Educational
Resources membership with the Open
Textbook Network (OTN) to incentive
faculty to submit OER reviews that
could lead to more OER adoptions and
offer grant programs for adoption, adaptation,
and authoring. A total of 30%
of the incoming class enrolls in Business
Administration (BA 101), the first
requirement for the business major.
Open Oregon Educational Resources
supported the development of OER for
this course, which has the potential to
save over 1,000 students $75, or $87,000
in total annually. Open Oregon Educational
Resources also invested in College
Composition III (WR 123). While
fewer students enroll in this course
than College Composition I (WR 121),
the conversion of the existing casebook
format to a free and open format could
serve as a low-cost, low-barrier publication
method for OERs across a range
of disciplines in future grant cycles.
Building on Open Oregon Educational
Resources’ grant programs, UO Libraries
will offer extended funding opportunities
to upper-division and graduate
courses with frequent offerings, high
enrollment, and high textbook prices
beginning in fiscal year 2020.
Through these coordinated efforts,
the University of Oregon aims to
increase institutional awareness, support,
and grassroots adoption of library
and OERs. The support of the State of
Oregon, Open Oregon Educational Resources,
and sister institutions throughout
the state are core to the success at a
local level.
Southern Oregon University
In 2014, using special funding from
the Oregon State Legislature, Southern
Oregon University (SOU) created
a “Student Success Initiative” grant.
Applicants were required to show how
their proposed initiative helped deal
with “obstacles to their progress from
enrollment, progression, and graduation.”
Applicants were also required to
demonstrate that their proposal was
not duplicative of existing efforts on
campus, established measurable metrics
to assess impact, and provided detailed
financials. The proposal developed
by SOU’s Hannon Library called
for $10,000 to be allocated to faculty in
Biology, Economics, Math, Physics, and
Sociology to facilitate the adoption of
OpenStax textbooks in those programs.
While Hannon Library’s Student Success
Initiative was approved, no faculty
applied for funding. Part of the problem
was that faculty members need time to
evaluate and adopt OERs more than
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