Capability building for a new OER service

The University of Melbourne Library is developing a new service offering to support the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OERs). This aims to reinforce the University’s values of openness, equity, and inclusion. To deliver this service, it was determined that library staff would need the opportunity to build capability around a range of topics relating to OERs. This includes understanding the value and benefits of OERs, the place of OERs in relation to open research, copyright and licensing information, and practical information about finding, evaluating, adapting, and creating OERs. 

To support library staff, our project team assembled in late 2021 to develop a professional development resource. The result was a self-paced online course created in Canvas, comprising five modules with rich media, H5P interactions, and quizzes. The course, Introduction to Open Educational Resources (OERs), launched in June 2022 as an internal resource for library staff. It aims to develop the capabilities of liaison librarians and other library staff so they can confidently advise academics about the use of OERs in teaching and learning. The course is intended to be iterative and will evolve to meet the needs of the University as our OER service offering matures, potentially extending to supporting the creation of new OERs.

This presentation explores the process of developing this course, including its structure and content, and reflects on lessons learned during its pilot period.

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Lightning talk delivered at the CAUL Enabling a Modern Curriculum Conference on 8 September 2022 (online).