The Role of Libraries in Collaborative OER Development

Leah Wiitablake; D. Boyer; Yang Wu

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Engineering Libraries Division Technical Session 7: Library Collaboration
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40845
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40845
Download Count: 510

Paper Authors

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D. Boyer Clemson University

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Research Associate Professor - Department of Engineering & Science Education
Educational Proposal Writer - Office of the Associate Dean for Research
College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences

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Leah Wiitablake Clemson University

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Leah M. Wiitablake is a current doctoral student in the Engineering and Science Education department at Clemson University. Her dissertation research focuses on undergraduate student interest and perceptions, in particular, the perceptions of and interest in the geosciences from students from traditionally minoritized groups. As a graduate research assistant, Leah has worked on designing and assessing virtual reality field experiences for introductory geology courses and is currently involved with educational research focused on the collaborative development of robotics textbooks as open educational resources.

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Yang Wu Clemson University

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Abstract

Libraries and librarians at post-secondary institutions are in the unique position to promote and advocate for Open Educational Resources (OER) by engaging in the interdisciplinary process of effectively creating and implementing OER. Librarians have the knowledge and skills to work with faculty to meet the needs of their individual learners by working as co-designers in the use and modification of existing OER and the creation of new OER [1] They are also useful guides on OER since many faculty members are unaware of these resources [2]. Having important expertise in areas like permissions and copyright and finding and assessing information [3], librarians are also essential to ensuring the effective creation and implementation of OER materials. Previous work had expressed the need to explore the use of OER in engineering libraries [4]. The work we share in this paper involves the creation of OER in mechanical engineering, being led by an academic librarian, with several other project members situated in that university, as well as other important collaborators at other post-secondary institutions and libraries. The purpose of this paper is to share our ongoing design-based research focused on an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional collaborative OER development project for Robotics textbooks and ancillary materials, with the context of this work being the role of librarians and libraries in the process. Libraries provide the organizational network and resources for leading the collaborative development team as their knowledge base is built to support interdisciplinarity, given broad access to sources of information and the tools to evaluate and attribute appropriately. In our situation, we have access to a robust university press and an Open initiative, as well as a statewide academic library network to support access to and distribution of project OER. The design of this project is centered on the role of librarians and libraries from post-secondary institutions given their situated access and expertise for creating OER. An important intention of our work from the perspective of a Predominantly White Institution serving [5] as lead is to collaborate with faculty from essential stakeholders, which in our case is a Historically Black University and a two-year institution in our state, along with project partners from PASCAL (Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries), the statewide library network, which the three project institutions belong to and serves “nearly 200,000 students at 55 colleges and universities.” [6]. To increase equitable access to information and attention to diverse learners, our resources have learner-centeredness as a primary instructional design aspect using the guidelines of Universal Design for Learning [7] as a structure for creating learning activities that make knowledge invitational and engaging to a broad range of motivated learners. In addition, our design process integrates principles and practices from Open Science and Open Pedagogy movements. [8] Here, we share results of our ongoing design-based research and development project and argue that librarians and libraries should be provided with central roles in the collaborative development of OER at post-secondary institutions. We are implementing work to explore this practice and invite your feedback. Works Cited [1] C. Leachman, and T. Anderson, "Open educational engineering resources: Adoption and development by faculty and instructors." 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, June 2017. [2] J. E. Seaman, and J. Seaman, "Opening the Textbook: Educational Resources in US Higher Education, 2017." Babson Survey Research Group, 2017. [3] T. Cassidy, O. Reinauer, and A. R. Walz, "In the highways and hedges: library support for OER adoption efforts at higher education institutions across Virginia." Charleston Library Conference, 2015, March 2016. [4] E. Rowley, "Examining the Teaching Needs of Engineering Faculty: How the Library and Librarian Fit In." 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, July 2021. Available: https://peer.asee.org/37125 [5] B. Bourke, "Meaning and implications of being labelled a predominantly white institution." College & University, vol 91, no. 3, 2016. [6] “Pascal Home: Pascal Home,” PASCAL LibGuides. [Online]. Available: https://pascalsc.libguides.com/home. [Accessed: 02-Nov-2021]. [7] “The UDL guidelines,” UDL, 15-Oct-2021. [Online]. Available: https://udlguidelines.cast.org/. [Accessed: 02-Nov-2021]. [8] S. Tzanova, “Changes in academic libraries in the era of Open Science.” Education for Information, vol. 36, no. 3, 2020.

[9] “What is Open Pedagogy” 2017. [Online]. Available: http://openpedagogy.org/open-pedagogy/ [Accessed: 05-Nov-2021]

Citation
Format

Boyer, D., & Wiitablake, L., & Wu, Y. (2022, August), The Role of Libraries in Collaborative OER Development Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40845

TY - CPAPER
AB - Libraries and librarians at post-secondary institutions are in the unique position to promote and advocate for Open Educational Resources (OER) by engaging in the interdisciplinary process of effectively creating and implementing OER. Librarians have the knowledge and skills to work with faculty to meet the needs of their individual learners by working as co-designers in the use and modification of existing OER and the creation of new OER [1] They are also useful guides on OER since many faculty members are unaware of these resources [2]. Having important expertise in areas like permissions and copyright and finding and assessing information [3], librarians are also essential to ensuring the effective creation and implementation of OER materials. Previous work had expressed the need to explore the use of OER in engineering libraries [4]. The work we share in this paper involves the creation of OER in mechanical engineering, being led by an academic librarian, with several other project members situated in that university, as well as other important collaborators at other post-secondary institutions and libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to share our ongoing design-based research focused on an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional collaborative OER development project for Robotics textbooks and ancillary materials, with the context of this work being the role of librarians and libraries in the process. Libraries provide the organizational network and resources for leading the collaborative development team as their knowledge base is built to support interdisciplinarity, given broad access to sources of information and the tools to evaluate and attribute appropriately. In our situation, we have access to a robust university press and an Open initiative, as well as a statewide academic library network to support access to and distribution of project OER.

The design of this project is centered on the role of librarians and libraries from post-secondary institutions given their situated access and expertise for creating OER. An important intention of our work from the perspective of a Predominantly White Institution serving [5] as lead is to collaborate with faculty from essential stakeholders, which in our case is a Historically Black University and a two-year institution in our state, along with project partners from PASCAL (Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries), the statewide library network, which the three project institutions belong to and serves “nearly 200,000 students at 55 colleges and universities.” [6]. To increase equitable access to information and attention to diverse learners, our resources have learner-centeredness as a primary instructional design aspect using the guidelines of Universal Design for Learning [7] as a structure for creating learning activities that make knowledge invitational and engaging to a broad range of motivated learners. In addition, our design process integrates principles and practices from Open Science and Open Pedagogy movements. [8]

Here, we share results of our ongoing design-based research and development project and argue that librarians and libraries should be provided with central roles in the collaborative development of OER at post-secondary institutions. We are implementing work to explore this practice and invite your feedback.

Works Cited

[1] C. Leachman, and T. Anderson, "Open educational engineering resources: Adoption and development by faculty and instructors." 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, June 2017.

[2] J. E. Seaman, and J. Seaman, "Opening the Textbook: Educational Resources in US Higher Education, 2017." Babson Survey Research Group, 2017.

[3] T. Cassidy, O. Reinauer, and A. R. Walz, "In the highways and hedges: library support for OER adoption efforts at higher education institutions across Virginia." Charleston Library Conference, 2015, March 2016.

[4] E. Rowley, "Examining the Teaching Needs of Engineering Faculty: How the Library and Librarian Fit In." 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, July 2021. Available: https://peer.asee.org/37125

[5] B. Bourke, "Meaning and implications of being labelled a predominantly white institution." College & University, vol 91, no. 3, 2016.

[6] “Pascal Home: Pascal Home,” PASCAL LibGuides. [Online]. Available: https://pascalsc.libguides.com/home. [Accessed: 02-Nov-2021].

[7] “The UDL guidelines,” UDL, 15-Oct-2021. [Online]. Available: https://udlguidelines.cast.org/. [Accessed: 02-Nov-2021].

[8] S. Tzanova, “Changes in academic libraries in the era of Open Science.” Education for Information, vol. 36, no. 3, 2020.

[9] “What is Open Pedagogy” 2017. [Online]. Available: http://openpedagogy.org/open-pedagogy/ [Accessed: 05-Nov-2021]
AU - D. Boyer
AU - Leah Wiitablake
AU - Yang Wu
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - The Role of Libraries in Collaborative OER Development
UR - https://peer.asee.org/40845
DO - 10.18260/1-2--40845
ER -