About the Mentorship Phase

What is the "Mentorship Phase" All About? 

  • The Mentorship Phase of the Certificate in OER Librarianship begins after the in-person Minneapolis time and goes until the first week in October.  It's a time to connect with your cohort group and instructor, to talk about challenges and successes with implementing your open initiative on your campus, and to contribute topics and resources that you'd find helpful and empowering.
  • You should expect one synchronous time a month from April to October, so roughly 7 calls total.
  • Your participation is expected at these meetings, so please let your instructor know if you can't make a meeting. We understand that we're all busy, working adults, but we also think this time will be valuable for you. 

Some Suggestions for Getting the Most Out of the Mentorship Phase:

1. Set up times to meet while in Minneapolis and book those times out on your calendar for easy planning. 

2. Contribute to the agenda when your instructor calls for it (typically the week prior to the monthly call). You may want to suggest items that you're currently finding challenging (e.g., an upcoming publisher sales pitch to campus administrators, planning a summer OER institute for faculty, resources for student advocacy on textbook issues, professional development, resources for modifying OER, examples of what to use to obtain permission to use student work in the creation of OER, MOUs with authors, etc.). 

3.  You may want to suggest discussing an article, blog post, or video/podcast about OER. 

4.   Consider sharing resources across all cohorts when you come across good ones or create new ones that you think might be helpful.

5. Please know that you can reach out to your instructor for one-on-one advice regarding your OER initiative.

6. Think outside the box. Would your cohort like to create an open pedagogy project? What might benefit you on your campus but others as well? 

7. Use your cohort members as resources; you each have different experiences, skills, and abilities, and this is your opportunity to share your collective expertise with each other.