New White Paper: Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) Publishes Results of Environmental Scan on Open Educational Resources (OER)

From OCUL:

In response to increasing membership interest in Open Educational Resources (OER) and the role of libraries in this endeavour, OCUL recently undertook an environmental scan and analysis of current activities in open education publishing. This initiative has resulted in the publication of an Open Educational Resources White Paper.
The scope of this report focused on the following topics:

• Overview of the current teaching and learning environment
• Faculty perspective
• Student perspective
• Environmental scan of national and international OER initiatives across libraries
• Legal considerations and licensing for producing and repurposing existing works
• Accessibility implications
• Technology and tools in use
• Current opportunities and the next frontier

From the Executive Summary

The OER environment in Ontario and worldwide continues to be a rapidly-changing one, and so it is expected that institutional needs and activities will continue to evolve accordingly.
Responses to the OCUL OER survey for libraries and stakeholders reflect this uncertainty by demonstrating that libraries are interested but cautious when starting new OER projects, as there might already to be an established community of practice for open education on their campuses.
OER is a highly collaborative multi-stakeholder area which requires the following areas of expertise:

• technical knowledge
• accessibility and universal design principles
• copyright,
• instructional design, and
• funding support and grant writing.

Research Team

• Katya Pereyaslavska, Online Learning & Accessibility Librarian, Scholars Portal (project lead)
• Amy Greenberg, Assistant Director, Scholars Portal
• Anika Ervin-Ward, Administration and Communications Coordinator, OCUL
• Heather Martin, Copyright Officer & Manager, E-Learning & Reserves, University of Guelph Library
• Catherine Davidson, Associate University Librarian for Collections & Research, York University Libraries
• Ann Ludbrook, Copyright & Scholarly Engagement Librarian, Ryerson University Library
• Scott Cowan, Librarian, University of Windsor Library
• Carole Moore, former Chief Librarian, University of Toronto Libraries
• Lillian Rigling, Research & Instructional Services Librarian, Western University Libraries

Direct to Full Text Report (62 pages; PDF)

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