About

Getting OER initiatives started, or keeping momentum for OER initiatives going, can be challenging. With that in mind, we’ve designed an OER Toolkit to help campus partners set and achieve OER Goals across these domains:

• Professional development and networking (Connect)

• Planning and hosting events (Invite)

• Information sharing / OER adoption and creation (Create)

• Taking inventory of the current OER landscape on your campus (Assess)

• Bringing additional campus stakeholders into the work of OER (Partner).

The OER Toolkit is intended to be used in any order or combination – jump in and get started! Also available in a download & print version. 

Connect

• Attend an ALPA-sponsored event or webinar

• Join an ALPA working group

Invite

• Host an OER informational session

  • Create Promotional Materials

  • Need help getting started? Contact an OER specialist

Create

• Provide a go-to resource hub on your campus

• Support publishing on your campus

  • View an ALPA Webinar: Textbook Remix: An Introduction to LibreTexts for OER Editing, April 20, 2021

  • Sign up for a Creative Commons Certificate Course

Assess

• Review data about textbook costs

  • Read Nagle, C. and Vitez, K. Fixing the Broken Textbook Market, 3rd Ed. U.S. PIRG Education Fund. February 2021.

    • (See the responses from PA schools here)

  • Student survey from Gettysburg: Appedu, Sarah; Elmquist, Mary; and Wertzberger, Janelle, “Using a Student Textbook Survey to Advance an OER Initiative” (2020)

• Get to know faculty and OER use on your campus

  • Survey faculty – view and reuse a survey intended for PA institutions

Partner

• Talk to faculty to identify your early adopters

  • Review these ALPA Campus Partner session materials for having productive conversations with faculty

  • Prepare for conversations with faculty by reviewing SPARC’s OER Mythbusting guide

• Get students involved

  • Identify a student group or student government contact to meet with. Share a copy of the Open Textbook Alliance’s Student Government Toolkit for making textbooks affordable.

  • Check out the Student Perspectives on Open and Affordable Education session from the ALPA Summit 2020