Running the Play
Consider the needs — what would help your faculty at this point in time? Training can encompass any of the following areas and everything in between. Select topics and activities that introduce information and also invite people to go hands-on interacting with OER content and learn by doing. Topics may include:
- OER 101: The Basics of Open Educational Resources: Introduce faculty to the foundations of OER. What it is, what efforts have been undertaken in neighboring departments.
- OER-Enabled Pedagogy: Teaching with OER. This session lends itself well to a faculty panel or roundtable discussion. Start with some guiding questions that will help faculty understand how others have been incorporating and using OER in their classroom.
- OER Licensing Basics: Consider inviting a resident librarian to review and discuss the different levels of the CC license, as well as how to cite and attribute content faculty have and will create.
- Adopt, Adapt, Create: Transitioning Your Course to OER. This session would also lend itself well to the experience of faculty and instructional designers who have already gone down the road of converting a course to OER. Important to underscore is the ease of transitioning to OER — in most cases, resources have already been developed that faculty can simply adopt. Where comprehensive resources don’t exist, faculty can usually still locate a similar already existing resource and adapt it to suit their needs. As a last resort faculty can embark on creating something new, but chances are something already exists.
- Technology: Platform to access and share OER. This session could provide a broad overview of available platforms used to access and share OER.
- Developing Assessments: Content is important, but assessments are paramount! Invite your resident Instructional Designers to talk through the basics of developing well-aligned, high-quality assessments.
Tap into your community for assistance with training. As you identify what types of training and activities will help support and strengthen your faculty, identify friends and supporters to help develop and deliver training. Experienced faculty members often appreciate the opportunity to share what they’ve learned. Seek help from other supporters on your campus in the library, the teaching and learning center, your OER Committee, or others in a position to contribute. If you work with Lumen Learning, as your adoption team representatives for guidance and help.
Pass the ball! Consider a “train the trainer” strategy where you build capabilities and empower other “OER Champions” who can go back and share with their teams. OER Champions consist of faculty members who display interest and enthusiasm to expand the use of OER. Librarians and Instructional Designers can also make great partners, especially those with experience in curriculum development who can really help faculty make the transition to OER.
Go out to the field! Instead of setting up events where faculty come to you, consider reaching out to department chairs and visiting regularly scheduled department meetings as a guest speaker. This would be an opportune time to promote your training schedule and provide “teasers” consisting of snippets from any of the topics mentioned above. Consider also teaming up with a student who has used OER in their class and give faculty the opportunity to ask them questions
Resources & Links