International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 54

International Journal of Open Educational Resources
Future Directions
In order to proactively address the
challenges of the program and further
advance OER for our study
abroad constituents, a number of future
directions and projects have been
planned. Integrating OER support into
the study abroad instructor onboarding
experience is a major goal for expansion.
As faculty outreach is key for
embedding information literacy into
our international curriculum, two certificate
programs have been planned
utilizing asynchronous modules to inform
and promote library resources
and services with a major component
on OER and open pedagogy. One certificate
program will be focused on the
needs of local (to the study center) instructors,
many of whom have never
visited our main campus in Tallahassee
and currently adjunct for multiple
institutions. The other module will be
built with the needs of main campus
instructors travelling abroad in mind
with information about the mini-grants
and other strategies and support for
utilizing open materials in their courses
abroad. Furthermore, IP has agreed
to add language about adopting OER
in the application forms for instructors
teaching abroad, where preference will
be given to instructors who select open
and affordable materials. Since there is
no traditional, in-person orientation for
instructors teaching abroad, these asynchronous
options will not only introduce
open textbooks and open pedagogy,
but also guide instructors to actively
explore OER options for their courses
abroad to better support non-traditional
learning models.
In-person, face-to-face contact
is an important component to maintaining
and growing partnerships, even
with distance and extended campus users.
University Libraries’ MOU provides
external funding for library staff to visit
the international study centers and incorporate
thoughtful and timely OER
outreach to campus administrators
and staff including one-on-one meetings
with instructors, faculty forums,
and formal workshops on OER-related
topics. Additionally, main campus
workshops are offered on OER and
open-enabled pedagogy on a regular
basis, offering on-campus faculty travelling
abroad the opportunity to engage
with the OER team and take advantage
of our on-campus support offerings.
Lastly, to build on and augment
our current OER initiative, our team is
in the midst of exploring a new program
to promote affordability on campus
and beyond, through the acquisition
of unlimited, nonlinear eBook licenses
for currently assigned textbooks that
fit specified criteria and auto-populating
these resources within the Canvas
course site. Similar projects have been
implemented at institutions such as
Penn State and University of Florida
(Penn State World Campus, 2019; University
of South Florida, 2017). This
program is an effective complement to
our current open initiatives, providing
options to instructors who are unable
to locate suitable open resources to
support their curriculum. This eBook
program will allow the OER team to
not only support students through the
acquisition of current material licenses,
but will also instigate further conversa-
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