International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 157
A Community-Based Collaborative of OER programs
students will save $3980 during the
2019-2020 academic year, but this
redesign has the potential to reach
many more students than just those
at WOU. University of California,
Davis is creating an American
Chemical Society-certified B.S. degree
in Chemistry using only OER
textbooks and other free materials,
and the CHEM 450 textbook will be
used in that degree pathway.
The eleven courses redesigned
during the Open Textbook Sprint will
save WOU students more than $110,000
during the next academic year.
Armed with this knowledge,
the Scholarly Communication Librarian
submitted a budget proposal to the
University Budget Advisory Council in
2019. The proposal linked OER to the
University’s Strategic Plan and met the
University President’s three institutional
budgetary priorities:
• growing enrollment (i.e., attracting
new students);
• improving retention (i.e., keeping
the students we already have); and
• making WOU the most affordable
public university in Oregon
Because of its tie-in to the University’s
priorities, the original proposal
(which was combined with a related
idea submitted by a library colleague)
was funded for the 2019-2020 school
year. The proposals also received additional
funding (at a reduced level) for
subsequent years.
In June, WOU attended an
Achieving the Dream (ADT) No-Cost/
Low-Cost Pathways Workshop fully
paid for and supported by Open Oregon
Educational Resources. Teams from a
number of Oregon community colleges
and universities spent the day doing
hands-on work around OER action
planning for the coming academic year.
The WOU team included the Director
of Disability Services, the Bookstore
Manager, the Faculty Senate President,
the Scholarly Communications Librarian,
and several faculty members committed
to OER efforts on campus. After
identifying campus characteristics and
creating a mission statement, the team
set goals for the 2019-2020 school year,
which include the following:
• Formalize an OER group on
campus
• Gather baseline data regarding
OER adoption on campus
• Increase awareness of OER on
campus
• Provide guidance when awarding
and tracking OER grants
The 2019-2020 school year on
the WOU campus looks very promising
for OER. The number of faculty
who submitted proposals in response
to OpenOregon Educational Resources’
most recent round of grant funding
increased exponentially over past
years, top administrators and faculty
alike have expressed interest in creating
a zero textbook pathway through
the university’s newly redesigned Gen
Ed curriculum, and the university has
demonstrated a financial commitment
to OER for this year and years to come.
149