Use this play to:

Invite OER veteran faculty members from your campus or neighboring institutions to share what they’ve done and how it is impacting teaching and learning in their courses. Host these presentations in departmental meetings, lunch & learn sessions, virtual roundtable discussions, teaching & learning center seminars, or other professional gatherings.

Note: Asterisk denotes this is a proven, high-impact play.

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Running the Play

The first step in organizing effective peer sharing is to identify faculty who have experience with OER and who are willing to participate. In some cases it may be worthwhile to offer some form of compensation for their time and efforts. While it is of course important to gather positive and successful examples, being able to share challenges, obstacles, and how those were overcome can lead to highly impactful conversations.

Also keep in mind opportunities where an OER Faculty Panel can be a part of larger OER or other teaching and learning events. In most cases, approximately 60-90 minutes allows for enough time to hear from faculty and facilitate a constructive question and answer session.

Example: SUNY OER Faculty “Roadshow”. The full day schedule

Time Description Participants
8:30am Arrival and light refreshments
9:00am Welcome Campus Representative
9:15am Keynote SUNY OER Services
10:30am Break
10:45am Faculty Panel Faculty Advocates from across SUNY
12:00pm Lunch
1pm Copyright Session SUNY OER Services
1:45pm Breakout Sessions by Discipline. Sessions may vary, but typically include:

~Arts & Humanities

~Science & Technology

~Math

~Social Science

~All Disciplines

 SUNY OER Services & Faculty Advocates
3:45 Conclusion – wrap up in breakout groups SUNY OER Services & Faculty Advocates

The following is a sketch of the agenda specifically for the Faculty Panels:

Facilitator: Brief overview and introduction of panelists

“Origin Stories”: each panelists gives a ~5 minute story of their experience using OER

Facilitated Questions: the facilitator opens general discussion with one or two questions of his/her choosing. These can be aimed at specific panelists or open to all.

General Questions: open the floor to questions from the audience. Generally there are more questions than time to answer them all. If the questions lag, the facilitator can again seed conversation with additional questions of his/her choosing.

Facilitator: Brief closing remarks

Helpful Resources

Link to SUNY OER Services’ sample workshop agenda

Sample questions for faculty panel participants:

  • What particular challenges did you find in your field of discipline as you moved towards OER?
  • What interactions have you had with other members of your discipline around OER?
  • Who do you look to for support?
  • What role have administration, tech support, your library, your bookstore…etc., played for you?
  • What recognition or reward related to your OER use has been most meaningful for you?
  • What role have students played in your transition to OER?
  • What keeps you going?
  • If a publisher offered you comparable pricing right now, what would you say?
  • How much has your course has changed since you shifted to OER?
  • How much time have you invested in this process? Was it worth it?
  • What would you tell others who are looking to get started?
  • What’s the biggest difference between your previous course and your OER course?

Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash