Contributed by Elaine Thornton

In late July 2021, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), in partnership with OpenStax and ISKME, convened its inaugural Institute on Open Educational Resources. The year-long institute began with a two-day synchronous virtual kickoff event. I was invited to participate as a member of the institute faculty. I welcomed this opportunity to take part and broaden my OER connections. Sixty-six institutions and consortia groups were selected to participate. As a faculty member, I was assigned mentoring duties for three campuses developing and implementing OER action plans. Each campus’s plan focuses on launching or expanding OER awareness and use on their respective campuses. I have been working with teams representing three diverse campuses. The three teams include a public historically Black university (HBCU), a mid-sized public suburban midwestern university that primarily serves undergraduates, and a small urban university with an enrollment almost evenly split between graduate and professional students and undergraduates. My one-year assignment entails meeting with each group, corresponding with team leaders throughout the year, and facilitating individual campus and joint sessions at the three virtual institute events. Halfway through the program, I reflected on my experiences working with these teams and found that through this experience, I have gained further confirmation of some beliefs about OER work I already held but have also gained new insight into others.  

• Every campus is unique! I have been working with three unique institutions. All have the goal of increasing OER use and support, but each approach to these goals was unique. One campus faces the challenge of securing ongoing stable funding for OER programs. Permanent funding is being sought for faculty incentives and creating a stable program infrastructure that includes personnel dedicated to managing the program and supporting faculty transitioning to OER. Another institution has an identified funding source, and in its nascent state, enough staff support. However, this team has identified a need to increase faculty buy-in and commitment to OER. The third institution has some funding, the support of the Administration, and a well-thought-out plan but finds that they need to provide some basic introductory workshops and need to designate an individual to coordinate launching and overseeing a funded OER program. It has been fascinating to observe how each team grapples with its unique assets and challenges. As the teams and their initiatives continue to develop, what has become more apparent to me is that there is no standard blueprint. Yes, ideas can be borrowed from here and there, but each OER initiative should be built around the strengths and circumstances of the local environment.   
• Leadership matters! A strong unit leading the charge creates a strong foundation other stakeholders can enhance. A focused, organized team leader and a dedicated campus team are critical factors in advancing institutional OER initiatives. Each team has dedicated leaders guiding the institutional groups through the action plan. They are responsible for working with their Institute colleagues to plan and implement the strategy, acting as the Institute leadership representative, and communicating with me, the Institute faculty member/mentor. Additionally, each team member has taken on a leadership role as part of the campus’ Institute team. They advocate for OER in their departments and academic or support units and serve as OER ambassadors for the planned initiative. Each team also includes teaching faculty who serve as examples of early adopters and provide leadership in their subject areas.   
• Partnerships are essential! OER work is bolstered by involvement from cross-disciplinary, multi-unit campus groups working together to develop and expand OER initiatives. OER thrives when cross-campus partnerships are developed. On two of the three campuses, a specific campus unit had been designated as the program initiator, but representatives from several campus units participated. A diverse composition of campus stakeholders was a requirement for selection to participate in the institute. This structure proves a positive element for devising and implementing the action plans. An OER initiative should not be owned by one campus unit but should be a product of multiple stakeholders and constituents.
• Plans Change! The teams have had to remain agile and flexible. Initial plans have changed, been augmented, or adjusted, and adapted to suit shifting campus circumstances such as lingering pandemic constraints, campus administration changes, and team composition changes due to job members’ job changes. All the teams are learning that ideas they began with might need to be altered as their campus OER initiatives move forward. They can be assured that this is okay. Sometimes, it feels like you are making it up as you go along. Counting each completed step as a victory is important, especially when launching initiatives that seek to disrupt currently accepted practices.    

Conclusion

These insights are not unique to my experiences with these three organizations. I have noted them in my local campus work, conversations with other OER leaders, and during other programs in which I mentor library OER leaders. In fact, other AAC&U faculty can probably share similar notes. These points can serve as reminders of foundational instrumental elements required for building, expanding, and strengthening campus OER initiatives. The campus teams will continue the action plan implementations through the winter and spring and report on their activities when the AAC & U Institute on OER concludes in July 2022.

Dr. Elaine Thornton is the Open Education and Distance Learning Librarian at the University of Arkansas. In addition to her work with the AAC&U Institute on OER, she is also an Open Education Network (OEN) certificate in OER Librarianship instructor. 

This post is by Elain Thornton and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, except where otherwise indicated. Please reference OER and Beyond and use this URL when attributing this work; for more information on licensing, see our Open Access Policy.