scholarly journals Performance Improvement Technology for Building a Sustainable OER Initiative in an Academic Library

TechTrends ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-274
Author(s):  
Kathy Essmiller ◽  
Penny Thompson ◽  
Frances Alvarado-Albertorio
Keyword(s):  
Performance Improvement ◽  
Environmental Analysis ◽  
Gap Analysis ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Land Grant ◽  
Organizational Analysis ◽  
University Campus ◽  
The University

AbstractIn keeping with its land grant mission, a university campus library partnered with several OER advocacy efforts on both national and state levels to promote the creation and use of OER at the university. While the program had some initial success in inspiring faculty to create and use OER in their courses, the effort proved difficult to sustain. This paper presents the application of the Performance Improvement/HPT model to an Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative in a university library. This paper focuses specifically on three phases of the process: organizational analysis, environmental analysis, and gap analysis We share results of that application and discuss how the HPT model might effectively be applied to other similar programs.

scholarly journals In the News

2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
David Free
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Scholarly Communication ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Professional Development Program ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
University Of Memphis ◽  
Data Stewardship ◽  
The University

Welcome to the April 2019 issue of C&RL News. We start out this month with two articles focusing on scholarly communication issues. Navigating copyright in open educational resources is the focus of Lindsey Gumb’s Scholarly Communication column “An open impediment.” At the University of Memphis, librarians increased knowledge of data issues on campus through a professional development program for faculty. They write about their efforts in the article “Data Stewardship Week in an academic library.”

Introduction: Open Educational Resources and the Academic Library

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-342
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Dill ◽  
Mary Ann Cullen
Keyword(s):  
Academic Library ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources

scholarly journals Lessons Learned from the Development of Open Educational Resources at Post-Secondary Level in the Field of Environmental Modelling: An Exploratory Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quazi K. Hassan ◽  
Khan R. Rahaman ◽  
Kazi Z. Sumon ◽  
Ashraf Dewan
Keyword(s):  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Environmental Modelling ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
Student Ratings Of Instruction ◽  
University Of Calgary ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

Open educational resources (OER) have become increasingly popular in recent times. Here, the aim was to synthesise the lessons learned through the development of OER materials for a university-level course called “environmental modelling”. Consequently, the topics of discussion included: (i) how to choose an appropriate creative commons license; (ii) ways of incorporating materials from other sources, such as publicly available sources, other open access materials, and an author’s own published materials if not published under a creative commons license; (iii) the impact of the developed OER in the field of environmental modelling; and (iv) the challenges in developing OER material. Upon developing the materials, we observed the following: (i) students enrolled in the course did not purchase textbooks; (ii) our OER materials ranked as one of the most accessed (i.e., number 7) materials according to the usage data that summed the number of file downloads and item views from PRISM (i.e., the hosting platform maintained by the University of Calgary); (iii) the students learned relatively better as per the data acquired by the University of Calgary’s universal student ratings of instruction (USRI) instrument; and (iv) other universities expressed interest in adopting the materials.

Techno-economic and environmental analysis of a microgrid concept in the university campus

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nemanja S. Savic ◽  
Vladimir A. Katic ◽  
Nenad A. Katic ◽  
Boris Dumnic ◽  
Dragan Milicevic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Analysis ◽  
University Campus ◽  
The University

A case for open, viable print accounting

2014 ◽  
Vol 115 (11/12) ◽  
pp. 515-526
Author(s):  
Michael Kalochristianakis
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
University Campus ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Over The Counter ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Combine Management ◽  
Level I ◽  
The University

Purpose – This paper aims to describe the design and business characteristics of the system pertaining to efficient and viable public services, the technical perspective and also usage results from the productive prototype. When the academic library of our institution turned to consider cost-effective solutions that would combine management and accounting for both printing and photocopying, it was realized that there are no open-source or enterprise platforms that can support such characteristics. Instead of relying on commercial solutions, the construction of a service was planned by means of integrating community-based projects and developing any missing components. Design/methodology/approach – The implementation of the system was based on the identification of appropriate open-source modules and on the development of ones that do not exist but are necessary to realize business procedures for credit reception, control and billing. Thus, the system integrates software for the management of printers and print tasks, for accounting for printing tasks, for user catalogues, for authentication modules and for the control of low level I/O operations. The aforementioned systems were integrated along with the following new modules that were developed to create a complete service. Findings – Our prototype has been operating at our University since May 2011. The system was installed at four sites in reading rooms of the library. Three of them are located in different departments within the University campus, while the fourth is located in the last reading room that has not yet moved within the campus. In two years, more than 28,000 pages were printed and charged. The steady rise in the number of served requests leads us to the conclusion that the system can cope with the heavy use of photocopying machines. Originality/value – The prototype described in this paper is a complete productive platform that is capable to accept money or credit over the counter or by using money receivers and provide billing and management for printing and photocopying. The system does not depend on any vendor technology, offers control, monitoring, receipts and reports and because it relies on open source can minimize the total costs of ownership. Scrutiny of the bibliography and market did not find any systems that could meet the aforementioned characteristics.

scholarly journals A case study investigation of academic library support for open educational resources in Scottish universities

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 685-693
Author(s):  
Seth D. Thompson ◽  
Adrienne Muir
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
Institutional Commitment ◽  
Case Study Methodology

The aim of the research was to investigate why and how Scottish university libraries support open educational resources and to assess their ability to provide support services for their development and use within higher education institutions. There has been little research on the role of academic libraries in supporting open educational resources in Scotland and previous research found that there is a lack of awareness of them in Scottish higher education institutions and few have open educational resources policies. The case study methodology therefore involved two Scottish academic libraries providing open educational resources services. The libraries’ motivation includes supporting teaching and learning and the development of educator digital skills and copyright knowledge. However, there are a number of barriers limiting the services the libraries are able to provide, particularly lack of human resources. The research confirmed the findings of previous research on the importance of institutional commitment, incentives for educator engagement, and understanding of copyright and licensing issues by educators and library staff.

Becoming Trusted Research Partners Through InfoExpress at The University of Toronto

2021 ◽  
pp. 187-214
Author(s):  
Manda Vrkljan ◽  
Adrienne Findley-Jones
Keyword(s):  
Academic Library ◽  
Support Service ◽  
University Campus ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
Document Delivery ◽  
Personalized Services ◽  
Productive Research ◽  
The University ◽  
The Relationship

This case study discusses the importance of building initial trust in the relationship between researcher and academic library. Primary coverage serves the experience of two small humanities-based colleges serving approximately 125 faculty members within a larger university campus by providing the personal document delivery service of InfoExpress. The trust built through this initial research support service creates avenues for further support from the library and the wider university library system. As every relationship has challenges, the ones occurring here are opportunities to improve the relationship in favour of the researcher and library. If the researcher is unaware of what support the library provides, establishing a personal relationship will immediately provide productive research time and create an opportunity for future support through additional personalized services. The researcher, their research, and their library benefit by this trusted partnership.

The Effects of Using Open Educational Resources on Minority Achievement in Undergraduate Mathematics

2020 ◽  
pp. 20-41
Author(s):  
Josephine Dunbar Davis ◽  
Samuel Bradley Cartwright
Keyword(s):  
Cost Savings ◽  
Open Educational Resources ◽  
Educational Resources ◽  
State University ◽  
Minority Achievement ◽  
Course Enrollment ◽  
University System Of Georgia ◽  
Algebra Students ◽  
Historically Black University ◽  
The University

Prominent in the public debate on college affordability is the rising cost of textbooks. Owing to limited finances or mounting college debt, many students fail to purchase required course textbooks. Among the perils students without textbooks face are delayed course enrollment, high failure or dropout rates, and extended time to graduation. At Fort Valley State University, an Historically Black University within the University System of Georgia, the mathematics faculty first observed increasing numbers of college algebra students without textbooks, then, similarly, with upper division students. As a cost-savings measure, the faculty redesigned eight courses using open educational resources (OER). This chapter highlights the four-year results of faculty and students' OER course experiences. OER students have better grades, lower failure rates, and better attendance records than those using traditional textbooks. The attitude of OER students towards mathematics also improved. A total cost savings of $197,780 was realized with an average, per student savings of $198.

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