2.2 Faculty Audience

As the stakeholders who often make decisions about which course materials to assign, faculty members are often at the heart of the discussion about OER. This section describes the primary issues likely to be raised when making the case for OER to faculty members. In addition to the benefits to students described in the previous subunit, faculty members benefit from open education in a variety of ways. For an overview of the issues and list of talking points, revisit "Talkin' 'Bout OER Links to an external site." if you need to.

OER and Academic Freedom

One common question from faculty has to do with academic freedom. Although this issue may be understood differently at a community college than it might be at a four-year university, most faculty members are likely to feel ownership of their teaching, so discussing OER in the context of empowering choice is critical. A proposed 2018 bill in Hawaii Links to an external site. that mandated the use of OER offers one example of the perils of imposing OER, rather than persuading faculty of its value. SPARC's OER State Policy Playbook Links to an external site. likewise emphasizes the importance of respecting "the right of faculty to select materials most appropriate for their courses." OER actually expand faculty's academic freedom by giving them a greater variety of choices and by empowering them to customize their course materials.

OER-Enabled Pedagogy

The power of OER for faculty is that they support faculty choice by providing an open license that permits remixing and revising to make course materials better aligned with the expertise and teaching style of individual faculty members. As psychology professor Rajiv Jhangiani notes, " Links to an external site.The ideal textbook does not exist Links to an external site.." But OER permit each faculty member to mix and match chapters or sections, replace outdated content, and tailor the materials to their own voice and experience. In David Wiley's words Links to an external site., using OER means that "Every word, every image, every example, every definition, and every other aspect of the book is open to localization, adaptation, remixing, and improvement by faculty." Instead of "disposable assignments" that David Wiley Links to an external site. defines as,

"Any assignment about which students and faculty understand the following:

  • Students will do the work
  • Faculty will grade the work
  • Students will throw away the work

He suggests considering a 'renewable assignment' where

  • Students will do the work
  • Faculty will grade the work
  • The work is inherently valuable to someone beyond the class
  • The work is openly published so those other people can find and use (5R) it."

Here are some examples of renewable assignments: 

This certificate program's Action Plan Links to an external site. is an example of a renewable assignment. We hope you'll contribute to the template of an OER Action Plan that we'll share publicly so others can benefit from various examples of action plans for implementing and growing open initiatives on their own campuses. 

Open Pedagogy

OER also offer faculty the opportunity to change not only the assigned materials, but the substance of their instruction. This practice, often called "open pedagogy Links to an external site.," is defined by leveraging the affordances of openness to replace static assignments with active, iterative learning. Robin DeRosa and Scott Robison describe open pedagogy Links to an external site. as creating "a new relationship between learners and the information they access in the course. Instead of thinking of knowledge as something students need to download into their brains, we start thinking of knowledge as something continuously created and revised." One popular example of open pedagogy is offered by the Wiki Education program Links to an external site. that supports faculty assignments grounded in student research and contributes to the Wikipedia platform.

Optional Readings

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