2024 Open Education Conference

This session will share the purpose, process, and preliminary impact of a Hewlett-funded project to engage individual institutions and postsecondary systems in using the DOERS Equity Through OER Rubric. The Rubric is a comprehensive self-assessment tool, designed to guide students, educators, and others in better understanding and acting on the equity dimensions of OER. Its goal is to enable users to integrate OER in equitable ways across higher education leading to quality and equitable student access, outcomes and success. The project funded 5 universities and one system to work through the rubric dimensions. The session will feature lessons learned in applying the rubric across multiple and diverse institutions. At a fraught moment in higher education for doing equity work, the rubric provides critical approaches for deepening understanding and broadening participation across institutions and systems.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Articulate the purpose and structure of the Equity through OER Rubric.
• Gather concrete strategies, inspiration, and ideas for acting on the equity dimensions of OER from a variety of roles, units, and functions with attention to the student experience with OER, OER practitioners, and leadership and accountability broadly understood across institutions and systems.
• Learn about institutional experiences with, and adaptations of the rubric and thematic outcomes through a grant-funded process.
• Contribute ideas and feedback on enhancing the Equity through OER Rubric.

This project, funded by the Hewlett Foundation, promotes open education in Oregon’s K-12 schools through expanding the educator network with an interest in open education for equity. Faculty who train preservice teachers are invited to a paid opportunity to redesign their curriculum using OER with an equity lens. Faculty receive training, support, and grant funding to redesign their curriculum. Preservice teachers not only benefit from using OER in their courses, but also learn about opportunities to utilize open resources and practices with an equity lens in the classroom. Learn about OER connections between K-12 and higher education, the project’s goals and plan, and lessons learned during its first phase; and consider whether this model could be adapted to your context.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Explain connections between K-12 and higher education for open education and equity.
• Describe this project’s goals and plan to expand the educator network with an interest in open education for equity and consider their transferability to other contexts.
• Describe lessons learned from this project and their transferability to other contexts.
  
  Developing Open Educators Through K-12 and Higher Ed Connections [Google Slides]
  Recommended Reading for K12/Higher Ed Connections [Google Doc]

As open education begins to achieve traction, state- and system-level initiatives can play a significant role in developing policy and implementation paths to achieve broader goals around affordability, access, student success, and knowledge-sharing. They can establish models, align incentives, and provide infrastructure shared across system members. They can lend legitimacy and offer support, funding, scale, and collaboration opportunities around open education. But because every system is different, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to defining a winning strategy and structure for effective initiatives that achieve meaningful impact with open education. This panel discussion invites three architects of statewide initiatives to share their distinctive visions and strategic choices aiming for system-level impact. They will also compare operational approaches and lessons learned for achieving large-scale impact with open education.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Understand alternate visions and implementation models for operationalize support for open education on a statewide level
• Find useful artifacts and resources practitioners and leaders may find helpful in architecting and building their own open education initiatives
• Recognize considerations and success factors for implementing OER effectively at scale in complex organizations
• Apply lessons learned from experienced practitioners who are leading impactful statewide initiatives supporting open education within varied political, fiscal, and organizational environments
• Develop approaches for ensuring open education initiatives are designed in the service of broader strategic goals of state and system-level leadership

Many OER practitioners find themselves in a familiar situation: their institution secures a grant for OER initiatives from the department of higher education. Securing the grant is merely the first step in a complex journey. This session will navigate the multifaceted challenges that come with managing a large-scale OER project, from the allocation of funds to the execution of project deliverables and a revision cycle. Participants will be guided through a curated set of project management tools and techniques, designed to optimize efficiency within the grant’s framework. Moreover, the workshop will address the pivotal role of adept management in ensuring project success. This session will be led by an OER Project Manager who helped lead a multi-year statewide grant project, The Ohio Open Ed Collaborative. Project work focused on reducing the cost of 20 high enrollment courses across higher ed institutions in the State of Ohio.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

1. Effectively manage large-scale OER projects using a comprehensive project management toolset, including scope of work, timelines, Creative Commons license tracking, and reporting tools.
2. Implement actionable strategies to cultivate and maintain relationships with key stakeholders such as faculty members, steering committees, and project administrators.
3. Create and sustain a productive virtual environment for collaborative OER work, ensuring effective engagement and communication among faculty members.
4. Develop an iterative plan for the ongoing updating and maintenance of OER content, promoting continuous improvement and relevance.
5. Navigate the unique challenges of managing statewide grant projects, including building momentum within steering committees and securing continued state investment in the project.

Resources and Presentation from OpenEd 24
Please use the link above to access the tools discussed during the session as well as the slides. 

Coordinators of OER development projects have effective ways of responding to perfectionism: save that idea for the next edition, the open license means that the community can improve your work, etc. When a project has equity goals in mind, though, there are additional considerations about sharing when more time in development could result in a product that is better aligned with those values. Combine these challenges with the unique opportunities and pressures that accompany working with federal funding to support OER, and it’s no wonder that authors and creators committed to equity and inclusion may be overwhelmed. This discussion will include a panel of participants who are working on ambitious OER development projects funded by the federal Open Textbook Pilot fund. We want to explore the tension between the logistics of sharing a usable product, and the process of working with an equity lens. We will do this through storytelling with live polling, as well as ample Q&A time.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Consider the relationship between working in the open and working with an equity lens
• Analyze OER projects developed to increase equity at different higher education institutions
• Identify challenges, and strategies for overcoming them, to support equity-focused OER projects within a multi-institution consortium
• Explore techniques to incorporate equity into open content.

Link to slides

​Link to handout​​​