International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 71

Advancing an Open Educational Resource Initiative through Collaborative Leadership
reach out to invite the faculty members
who in the OER survey expressed an interest
in learning more about OER. As
OER events and programs are planned
and presented in the coming year, it
is hoped and anticipated that levels of
awareness and involvement will increase
among UMBC faculty.
Challenges
The initial steps and successes
were not accomplished without
challenges and opposition. Engaging
stakeholders from within the
institution who have varying motivations,
goals, interests, and personalities
requires clear identification of the
value proposition for each participant.
This is especially true when convening
an all-volunteer working group with
no formally established mandate from
the institution. Thus, it is imperative to
provide flexibility in scheduling meetings
and identifying milestones as the
work moves forward. Providing ways
to contribute both virtually and asynchronously
allows the group’s members
to contribute when and where they are
able to find the time.
Recognizing that not all faculty
are currently open or willing to consider
OER adoption, the co-chairs follow a
mantra of working with those who are
interested in participating and using
that energy to build broader interest
and support. This applies to both faculty
and academic leadership within
the institution. Having the support of
mid-level institutional cabinet members
as well as Vice Provosts and Deans
is essential to gaining greater traction
(Rolfe & Fowler, 2012). Additionally,
identifying early adopters and faculty
champions who can act as ambassadors
is a strategic approach in this effort. To
that end, faculty members from key
academic departments were identified
and serve as members of this working
group.
Beyond the working group, this
OER initiative faces challenges related
to traditional institutional protocols
and figurative “walls” that impede the
forward momentum of this work. The
lack of incentives for tenured and tenure-track
faculty to participate in this
type of academic transformation, especially
if it is not in conjunction with their
research focus, continues to be a challenge.
Additionally, the lack of support,
incentives, and motivation provided to
non-tenure track faculty, historically
most often those faculty involved in the
early adoption of innovative pedagogical
approaches, stifles the progression
of these efforts. For example, in one
instance, the co-chairs served as advocates
for a part-time, non-tenure track
faculty to make it possible for him to
receive financial support to participate
in an OER creation and adoption grant
program when the traditional institutional
protocols stymied his participation.
Identifying ways to simplify compensation
processes will be one of the
topics the working group will need to
address. Finally, the invisible labor required
to develop and sustain this work
is unaccounted for in these initial stages.
Volunteerism has been the foundation
of the group’s work to date; future
expansion will require a more formalized
support structure that includes the
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