Putting Educational Innovations into Practice.

Introduction, ideas to promote OER on campus!

Hello everyone! I’m new here and wanted to introduce myself as well as begin to contribute right away. My name is Nicole Finkbeiner and I work for Rice University’s OpenStax College.

Role at Rice University’s OpenStax College:

My title is Associate Director of Institutional Relations. I do primarily 3 things as part of that role:

Work with colleges and universities across the country to consult on effectively transitioning to OER materials. Typically this involves working with senior leadership, faculty leadership, librarians and instructional designers.
Work with our ecosystem partners to promote the use of OpenStax College books and their resources to provide the full “package” needed by faculty and students.
Promote the use of OpenStax College textbooks through conference exhibits and presentations, and conversations with faculty groups and individual faculty members.

Strategies and tactics that I’ve found work well to promote the use of OER at an institutional level:

Textbook heroes. These are what we call the faculty who actively go out and promote the use of OER to their colleagues. They present at internal presentations, at academic conferences, etc. on their use of OpenStax College resources. We don’t have a sales force at OpenStax, so we rely heavily on faculty referrals for new adoptions of our books. We have t-shirts that say “I am a textbook hero” if anyone would like some to give to dedicated faculty members.
Faculty pilots. Similar to the above, we’ve found that once one faculty member pilots a particular book and has a great experience, others will join-in. Depending on the culture of the institution, you can approach faculty directly or ask their chair to recommend someone or contact someone to pilot.
Faculty support. The key to a successful implementation is dedicated faculty support, including:
- Library support
- Instructional design support
Incentive (not mandate) support such as grants from either the college or university or a student group such as the Student Government Association
Expressed support from administration. A very large barrier for the implementation of OER is that faculty think their administration isn’t supportive of switching to OER. For example, I’ve had a couple of faculty express concern to me that that they will be punished for switching to OER because their college or university will lose money in the bookstore. I heavily emphasize to senior leadership that they need to be very public about their support of OER in meetings, via their newsletter, etc.
OER training days/webinars. Another main barrier to adoption is lack of awareness. Incorporating OER presentations into training days, hosting webinars, etc. is a great way to increase the use of OER on your campus. I’ve been involved in a couple of faculty training days this fall and have seen significant usage increases because of these opportunities. Incorporating OER providers, such as OpenStax College, in training days is also another great way for the senior leadership to show their support. I recommend promoting an event 2 weeks or more prior to the date of the event.

Main barriers to OER use:

“It can’t really be free” or “It can’t be free and last.” The best way to counter these is to have the opportunity to explain the model (how we are funded, how we sustain ourselves, etc.) via presentations, webinars, conference talks, etc.
The quality isn’t the same. Typically once a faculty member views our books, this goes away. Presentations and textbook heroes are also very helpful to promote the quality level of our materials.
Lack of awareness. See above. There’s also a whole host of marketing tactics you can use. The more creative the better! Some ideas:
- When I worked at community colleges in marketing, I found one of the best ways to promote to faculty was to get them involved by forming a committee to help market something. Door-hangers on their offices (especially if chocolate was attached) and funny skits (involving faculty) at meetings also worked really well. Floor and bathroom mirror decals are very effective, just be sure to coordinate with your facilities group and think about messaging if it’s somewhere both faculty and students will see.
- Currently OpenStax College has displays of our free textbooks at many of the University of California libraries. The librarians at these universities have come up with very creative ways to use these to help promote OER, such as taking the rack to convocation, having the rack at open houses, etc.
My administration isn’t supportive. See above.
I tired OER once and it was a bad experience. A testimonial from a faculty member using “OER 2.0” is the most effective strategy here.
They don’t have all the resources I need or in the format for our LMS. Sometimes this is a lack of awareness of the resources that are available. We promote our resources through promotional emails, presentations, hand-outs, web placement, social media postings, etc. In other cases, the faculty member just needs the support of a librarian or instructional designer to show them how easy it is to use the resources, even if they aren’t built specifically for their LMS.
Switching to a new book takes a lot of work. We promote heavily that our books fit the standard scope and sequence. This is also where stipends or grants from your college or university or from your student groups can be very effective.