FACULTY ROUNDTABLE SESSIONS

Invite faculty to attend an in-person or virtual Faculty/Student Roundtable session to hear from faculty and/or students who have used OER, and to bring their questions.

Faculty Roundtable Sessions are meetings that invite faculty members to have informal discussion with peers about what it’s really like to make the shift to OER. The primary focus is to share experiences, often in an impromptu show-and-tell format. Roundtables can encourage OER-curious faculty members to ask questions that might not otherwise surface, and OER-experienced faculty can share the low-down about what works, what doesn’t, and why.

Here are the basic steps:

Select 1-3 experienced faculty members (possibly with students) to participate in the Roundtable Session. Invite them to spend ~10 minutes sharing:

• What problems were you hoping to address when you started teaching with this course?
• Why did you consider using this OER course?
• What do you like about the course and how is it better for you and your students, compared to what you were doing previously? How is it working for you?
• What advice do you have for other faculty members considering this path?

Schedule the Roundtable Session at a time convenient for your presenters, and ideally during a window when your target audience of new-to-OER attendees can participate. Roundtables can be effective in either in-person or virtual format. If you host a roundtable as a virtual meeting, be sure to record it to share afterwards.

Invite people. Publicize the Roundtable event via email, internal information and communication forums, faculty event calendars, and so forth. (Find handy email templates you can use in the Helpful Resources below.)

Host the Roundtable Session. It helps for a session coordinator to open the session and provide brief context about the type of OER course materials being discussed. For example, in the case of a Lumen Faculty Roundtable Session, the Roundtable host typically shares a short course overview and then introduces the contributing faculty members. Be sure to keep the focus of the session on faculty, their experiences, and an open Q&A for others to ask any questions they may have. Remember to keep the session moving forward on time.  

If possible, record the session so you can share it afterwards. You might even use the recording to create shorter edited video pieces that help tell your story about OER on your campus. 

Attributions:

Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash