3.2 Communities of Practice
Introduction
Librarians often collaborate, share, and support one another as communities of practice. The units in this certificate explore topics that may be new to you and may present your institution with distinct challenges and opportunities. Connecting with librarian communities of practice can help you identify colleagues who have overcome similar challenges and taken advantage of the same opportunities. All members of communities of practice can benefit when experiences and resources are shared. This subunit explores some communities of practice that help librarians support faculty in finding, editing, and creating OER.
Communities and Their Resources
Below are some open education communities for you to explore. Consider joining one or more of these communities of practice as a way to strengthen your campus efforts and help you reach your OER goals.
Please feel free to share other communities with your colleagues in the discussion for this week!
Open Textbook Network
- The Open Textbook Network is community of more than 1,200 higher education institutions working to improve affordability of course materials and increase student success. Its mission is to transform higher education by providing training, resources, and communities of practice about open textbooks. Network members have saved students more than $8.5 million to date.
- Below are some of the resources developed by the Open Textbook Network's members and collaborators.
SPARC Libraries & OER Forum Links to an external site.
It can be helpful to share OER ideas and problems with others in the higher education community, and the SPARC Libraries & OER Forum serves exactly this purpose. It offers an email discussion list for academic librarians interested in OER. Its monthly community calls tackle various OER topics. The calls and listserv are meant to allow members to share ideas and resources, organize projects and events, and learn about news and updates in the OER movement.
Community College Consortium for OER (CCCOER) Links to an external site.
CCCOER is a consortium of community and technical colleges that are committed to promoting open education policy, practices, and resources. The community shares news, webinars, case studies, and a calendar of member events. This community of practice is especially useful for community college librarians who want to share best practices and learn from others.
Rebus Community for Open Textbook Creation Links to an external site. (Links to an external site.)
The Rebus Community is a group made up of faculty, students, and staff who are interested in publishing open educational resources. The community provides opportunities for collaboration, the ability to ask questions of and share projects with others, and a catalog of the community's collection of published open textbooks, among other support services. The Open Textbook Network and Rebus sponsor monthly Office Hours Links to an external site. to discuss issues related to OER creation.
BC Open Education Librarians Group Links to an external site.
The BC Open Education Librarians group is a collection of post-secondary librarians in British Columbia who meet and share resources Links to an external site. about how to support the development and use of OER. The group meets monthly on a virtual platform.
Next
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