Item Detail
-
Western Oregon University
-
Located in Monmouth, OR
Suburban
Public -
4648
-
537
-
Governing/managing body: Library
Program partners
• Academic Innovation Center (part of the library)
Funding:
• State government through Open Oregon
• Provost -
OER stipend program
Workshops/training
Campus Textbook Affordability Committee
• Library
• Registrar’s Office
• Office of Disability Services
• Bookstore (before the manager left)
• Representatives of the College of Education
• Representatives of Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Academic Innovation Instructional Designers
Open Education Week events
Course marking (required by legislature)
Publishing - Pressbooks (through Open Oregon)
Campus textbook affordability plan (required by legislature) -
The OER program began when the “President put together this budget committee, and then the budget committee said, anybody who wanted to put any type of budget proposal forward could do it.” The OER stipend program budget was submitted and approved. Though the funding needs to be renewed annually, so far it has been.
The stipend program has been very effective with funding available for anything that will reduce course materials costs for students. One year a faculty member “adopted an open textbook. The second grant for this year, they are making ancillaries for that.”
As with all Oregon institutions, course marking for low- and no-cost courses is mandated by the legislature and was accomplished. Students find this helpful in budgeting and determining which classes to take. On this campus “I think we’re close to 15% of our courses are either no or low cost courses.”
Training and workshops come in a variety. One includes “the Equity and Open Education Faculty Cohort where faculty are paid to take this course to learn about how to make their courses, or their materials, more diverse, to make sure that there's equal representation that the verbiage is inclusive.” This connects directly to OER. Other educational events include one during Open Education Week and a textbook petting zoo (which was only semi-effective).
Publishing OER happens through the Open Oregon instance of Pressbooks. There are some faculty currently working to get content there. Another mode being used is using Canvas to publish course content. While this is not open it is a no-cost solution.
Support on the campus is fabulous from both the library and campus administration. Because of the small size of the campus “almost everybody on campus knows I'm the OER person.” Additionally, there is a faculty email list to which there is direct access and it is not unusual to have a conversation directly with the “new provost, whose wife is a librarian, and he's very interested in open education resources, and he's so approachable.” Both the former and current president are big supporters of OER. This level of administrative support has been crucial for the success of the OER program. Trust from administration is demonstrated in that “because of our size, and also because I've been given autonomy. I can just pretty much go, Okay, I think I'm ready to do that, and I do it.”