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