International Journal of Open Educational Resources
pete for them with an open education course on their transcript . LIS programs that choose to offer open education courses could promote these types of positions to prospective students as potential career opportunities for those with MLS degrees .
The open movement is fortunate to attract many high caliber librarians to their ranks . In part , owing to the presence of mentors , leadership programs , workshops and open education conferences , there is currently no dearth of librarians eager to commit to advancing and advocating on behalf of the open movement . Looking to the future of the open movement , the next generation of leaders should be developed today in order to ensure the sustainability of the open movement . Existing scholarly communications courses can offer an introduction , but may be insufficient to instill the values of the open education movement in LIS students . Adding an open education course to the curriculum offers benefits to both the open movement and LIS programs .
Looking Ahead
The road to a more visible presence of open education courses in LIS programs is a long one , and possibly one that may never come to fruition . Where some greater certainty lies , is that the open education course and experience reported in this study will continue for the near future . This first iteration of this course demonstrated that LIS students will enroll if given the opportunity . Future iterations of the course must build on the initial offering and continuously improve the student learning experience . One clear recommendation based on student feedback is to give more - more hours of instruction , more subject matter , more practice with the open education librarian skill set . As a long-term adjunct instructor , the author can attest it is rare to hear LIS students asking for more coursework rather than less .
Other possible course content revisions need consideration . The most likely area for change is to re-arrange the order in which some of the course material is presented . Advocacy , for example , may be better left for the third or fourth week . Whether to expand the course by adding an additional two to four weeks is another consideration . Simply stretching out the existing content by slowing down the speed with which it is presented , could add two weeks . It is more likely that there are additional topics that could be added to the course . Open education is a constantly evolving field within academia . It ’ s possible that one or two weeks could be left open in order to incorporate the issues of the day . While all the assignments worked well , there are always emerging options for improvements and new activities to challenge and support the students ’ skills acquisition .
Whether or not other LIS programs introduce their own open education course is certainly the greatest unknown for the immediate future . Some programs , such as the large enrollment iSchool where the author serves as an adjunct instructor , actively seek out new courses to expand their offerings to students . They can afford to take the risk
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