International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 51

Taking OER Abroad with Library-Led Partnerships
from the ordinary to the extraordinary.
University Libraries’ role in this is key
to our partnership and this work requires
creativity and ingenuity, taking
the library out of the ordinary as well.
This program speaks to more than just
identifying a problem (textbooks) and
a solution (OER), but also to a foundational
culture change where cross-campus
partnerships can merge ideas and
align goals to create something innovative
and groundbreaking. The minigrant
program had to be adapted to fit
the needs of IP and the instructional
needs for teaching abroad. Deadlines
were modified. A new web presence was
created. The funding model required
creativity as University Libraries’ disbursement
of grant funds was disseminated
as funding for technology or professional
travel, while IP aimed to align
the program with their travel funding
reimbursement model; it was decided
that the grant funds would be distributed
as meal reimbursements within
the same process. Flexibility is key in
establishing any collaborative program,
especially in the landscape of open and
affordable in order to be responsive and
effective in program development.
Challenges
University Libraries’ partnership
with IP has presented a number
of challenges, both for the partners
involved and for instructors who
are interested in participating in the
ATG program. Communication about
the partnership has been a challenge
for University Libraries, since we lack
a direct communication channel for
distributing information to IP instructors.
All communication from University
Libraries must be sent to IP staff to
then be sent on to the instructors. This
arrangement has resulted in calls for
participation being sent to instructors
very close to the application deadline,
allowing less than adequate time for
instructors to consider the opportunity
and prepare an application. University
Libraries’ ATG team can mitigate this
challenge somewhat for the main campus
instructors by sending out promotional
materials through campus-wide
communication channels. This strategy
does not work for instructors who are
local to the international study centers,
however, since they are typically excluded
from campus-wide communication
channels.
A major challenge both for program
partners and for course instructors
has been the perception that course
materials assigned at international
study centers should conform to those
assigned on main campus. This perception
is not universal; some academic departments
give instructors the freedom
to assign whatever materials they see fit,
while others maintain curriculum committees
that seek to standardize materials
across different sections of a course
and ultimately have final say over what
materials are assigned. Even in cases
where instructors technically have the
freedom to select their own course materials,
however, both the directors of IP
study centers and the course instructors
themselves sometimes prefer that their
instructors select the same materials as
equivalent main campus courses in deference
to the preferences of the sponsoring
academic departments.
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