March 3-7 marks Open Access Week
Open Education Week, March 3 – 7, is an annual event that celebrates open education and aims to raise awareness about it and highlight efforts around the world.
Open education is an approach to teaching and learning that is focused on reducing barriers and promoting equity. Examples of open educational practices include using freely available course materials, engaging in research with open data and working with students to publish their work openly to share beyond the classroom.
“VCU Libraries is dedicated to advancing open educational practices, in alignment with the library university missions to create equitable learning opportunities for our students,” said Open Educational Resources Librarian Abbey Childs.
Notably, the VCU Libraries’ Open and Affordable Course Content Initiative began in 2017 and has helped nearly 100,000 students avoid over $10 millions in textbook costs. The initiative helps faculty to identify freely available course materials, including open and library resources, provides support for creating and publishing new open materials. The initiative also builds awareness for the importance of open education by raising student voices and celebrating faculty open education practitioners. VCU students can consider even text costs when they register for classes; they can search for free or low-cost materials.
Supporting Adoption, Adaptation and Creation
The libraries help faculty who are interested in exploring what freely available resources might be a good fit for their courses. Childs offers consultations to talk with faculty about making the switch: “When we meet, we’ll talk about your syllabus, what textbooks you’ve been using, and how your course materials have been working or not working for you. Then I’ll start with some initial research to see what open alternatives might be out there, either as a one-to-one replacement for your textbook or if there’s not a good match, we’ll talk about how we can supplement your course materials with OER or library ebooks.”
“Oftentimes, faculty reach out because they want to stop using an expensive textbook, but find that using open resources allows them to customize their course materials to better deliver the material to students,” Childs notes. For faculty interested in adapting or creating their own resources, the Libraries support faculty in applying to statewide programs like the VIVA Open Grants, or by applying to the Libraries’ own Affordable Course Content Awards program.
These programs support faculty in creating, adapting, or adopting existing open educational resources for use in their courses. Faculty awardees are offered grant funding, professional development and publishing support to create and implement OER in their teaching. To date, the VIVA Open Grants have been awarded to 14 project teams involving VCU faculty, and the Affordable Course Content Awards have supported eight cohorts of VCU faculty in transitioning their courses to open.
The Affordable Course Content Awards call for proposals is currently open through April 3rd. Interested faculty are invited to reach out to Abbey Childs, Open Educational Resources Librarian, with any questions or to further discuss the program.
Raising Awareness
In addition to supporting adopting, adaptation and creation of OER, the Initiative also works to raise awareness of open education. Faculty voices are shared in the Library Stories series, where authors discuss their motivations and experiences engaging in open education.
Student experiences are captured and shared through the Impact of Textbook Costs video series. Student perspectives are also captured annually during the Libraries’ Open Education Week programming through whiteboard campaigns, which ask students to respond to questions about their experiences with textbook costs and open educational resources. These are shared on the VCU Libraries’ social media accounts; follow hashtag #OEWeek25.
Celebrating the Wins
This year, VCU Libraries made signfificant progress in supporting open education. Last summer, VCU Libraries launched an updated version of Pressbooks, a publishing platform that is freely available for VCU faculty and staff interested in creating open teaching materials. Several of the projects funded through the early cycles of the Affordable Course Content Awards are being revised and expanded, with new editions forthcoming this year.
VCU faculty continue to become increasingly involved in statewide efforts, including engagement in the annual VIVA Open and Affordable Community Forum and participation in the pilot of the VIVA Rapid Publishing program. The program’s inaugural open textbook was published recently–Community and Public Health Nursing: A Call to Action. It was authored by a project team that included Research & Education Librarian and liaison to the School of Nursing, Roy Brown.
“We are thrilled with the level of engagement and support for open education among VCU community members and look forward to continuing to build on these successes together,” said Childs.
Categories Collections, Community, In the News, OER Stories, Open Textbooks, Why We Choose Open