Institution initiatives and support related to faculty development of open educational resources and alternative textbooks

ABSTRACT

Evidence exists that American institutions of higher education are well-entrenched in the consideration of mechanisms for supporting the implementation of Open Educational Resources (OER) and alternative textbooks. Literature reveals that developing and implementing OER is a significant undertaking in terms of time and human resources. This study deploys content analysis of a sample of United States regionally based higher education institutional websites to determine the current state of institutional support mechanisms to implementers just embarking on the OER journey. Findings reveal that institutions have made strides in the development of faculty mini-grants and stipends with guidelines, proposal checklists, and weighting mechanisms to inform decision making. However, due to widespread language across the stratified sample emphasising award pool and individual limits, it is clear that OER funding is still seeking wider support as a permanent funded resource. Sponsorship of institutional OER initiatives seems split between institutional library functions and teaching and learning centres. Other issues, such as ownership and licensing, are significantly underdeveloped in field implementation or fall in a large continuum of practices. Recommendations of shared responsibility and use of data driven initiatives are provided that may improve institutional support of faculty OER adoption, adaption and creation.

KEYWORDS:

• Open educational resources
• faculty support
• faculty development funding

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Veronica McGowan

Veronica McGowan serves as the Student Success Center Director at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. She is the Vice President of the Board of Education at the Insight School of Oklahoma, a public virtual charter school for grades 7–12 in Midwest City, Oklahoma. She is the past President of the Board of the Computing Teachers Network of the International Society of Technology in Education. She currently serves as chair of the Open Educational Resources subgroup for the Oklahoma State Regents of Higher Education’s Council of Online Learning. She previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for Computing Teachers; she now serves on its Review Board. She was a Middle States Evaluator and Programme Reviewer for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) for several years, and currently serves as an Evaluation Reviewer and Assessment Expert for the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programmes (ACBSP). She has also worked at elementary and middle schools in various roles as a computer, elementary or special education teacher; she currently holds certifications in Elementary Education and Special Education in Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Oklahoma and holds a doctoral class certification in South Carolina. In 2010, she graduated from Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania with a doctorate in Academic Leadership and Adult Education.