International Journal of Open Educational Resources Volume 2, Issue 1, Fall 2019/Winter 2020 | Page 72

International Journal of Open Educational Resources
incorporation of the shared governance
model of the institution.
Recommendations
As the co-chairs have worked to
develop a collaborative OER
initiative on campus, they found
that transparent, flexible, and scalable
processes that provide mutual benefits
have been key to the endeavor. In addition,
maintaining awareness of bandwidth
and labor capacities has helped
moderate the workflow and pacing.
These values permeate the work at two
levels, both in the shared responsibilities
of the co-chairs and in collaboration
with the working group as a whole.
Shared communication and
planning platforms have cultivated
transparency within the group. As part
of the initial kick-off meeting, the cochairs
created a Google Drive with
shared folders and a group calendar.
Action items were listed on an editable
group spreadsheet, which allowed
group members to see and volunteer for
tasks and to brainstorm additional tasks
of interest. The initial group meeting
times were determined based on feedback
from a Doodle poll, and periodic
meetings and email updates have allowed
for shared communication with
the group.
Understanding the many competing
demands for time, the authors
also prioritized flexible options for participating
in the group. A virtual conference
link was sent out to all group
members for the first meeting and was
embedded as a permanent option for all
future group meetings. Knowing that
there has been some resistance from
some sectors of the campus community,
the co-chairs moved forward first
in working with those who are actively
invested in advancing OER and using
that energy to build greater interest and
support within the wider campus.
Considering the different
strengths and interests of the group
members has helped prioritize initiatives
with mutual benefits. As the cochairs
considered the significant time
and labor investment needed to facilitate
OER adoption within a single
course, they realized the importance
of working with faculty members who
are already invested in adopting OER.
Rather than being a burden, the OER
project then becomes beneficial both
to the faculty member and the greater
OER initiative. For example, when the
state OER grant awardee met with resistance
at the institutional level, the
co-chairs reached out to the state level
to resolve the conflict, thus allowing his
OER implementation to move forward
for his fall course.
Scalability has been of critical importance
throughout the creation of the
campus OER initiative. Some practical
strategies have included selecting a few
top priorities for the upcoming semester
from the action item spreadsheet.
Tasks more suited for future work have
been slated for future start dates, ensuring
that the workload is reasonable for
the capacity of the working group. By
inviting collaboration on concrete action
items, the authors work to facilitate
the buy-in of all group members. In ad-
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