International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 205

From Soup to Nuts: Expanding Liaison and Technical Services for OER Development
ference and other meetings across the
state. These opportunities create a sense
of community for the Champions and
contribute to a strong support system
for promoting OERs across the USG.
Such support is important to the success
of the initiative as most Champions
take up this role voluntarily in addition
to their other job duties.
Of course, some institutions
have had better success than others realizing
the goals of the ALG initiative.
For a number of years, Georgia Southern
University lacked a dedicated Library
Champion. In Spring 2017, the
Library Dean appointed a new Champion
after serving in this role himself.
For the new Champion, most of her
first year in this role was spent learning
about ALG and connecting with
colleagues statewide. During this first
year, the Champion was able to conduct
two one-shot faculty workshops and
develop a new LibGuide introducing
the OER concept and outlining ALG
grant requirements (https://georgiasouthern.libguides.com/nocostlowcost).
During Spring 2018, the Champion was
able to partner with Georgia Southern’s
Center for Teaching and Excellence
(CTE) to provide two additional OER
workshops as part of the CTE’s ongoing
faculty development series. Attendance
at these workshops was low, with only
five total attendees. However, some
faculty attended multiple workshops
even after receiving emails explaining
the content had not changed. Conversations
and questions following the
workshops revealed to the Champion
and CTE personnel the depth, breadth,
and complexity of participating faculty
members’ questions and concerns
about implementing OERs for their
courses, indicating that the traditional
liaison approach to faculty OER education
was inadequate for faculty needs.
As a result, the Champion and CTE
personnel committed to developing a
semester-long Faculty Learning Community
(FLC) for Fall 2018, with the
expectation that an extended, immersive
training experience would address
questions and concerns raised during
the spring workshop.
Increasing Engagement: The
Faculty Learning Community
During Fall 2018, the Champion
partnered with CTE personnel
to offer a six-week FLC on
OERs and ALG grant funding opportunities.
The FLC met biweekly from September
through November. Faculty attending
the Spring 2018 workshop were
personally invited to participate as they
had previously shown interest. Furthermore,
CTE personnel added the FLC
to their faculty training calendar and
advertised it via their monthly newsletter
and website. The Champion drafted
emails for the other library liaisons to
target faculty who had shown interest
or asked questions about OERs or ALG
grants. As a result, eight faculty from
across campus signed up for the FLC.
Goals of the FLC included mentoring
faculty to 1) develop a working
knowledge of open access and OERs,
2) learn how to search for and evaluate
appropriate OER content, 3) understand
Creative Commons licensing
and its use in the OER context, and 4)
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