The greatest tool available to you is the community of engaged, supportive fellow members that make up the Open Education Network.

To help connect our members to one another and to create a space for shared resources, we have created the Google Group community of practice and the Community Hub. This is where our community is really in high gear: asking questions, collaborating, sharing, and supporting one another’s efforts.

Google Group Community of Practice

The Google Group listserv is a robust, welcoming environment where OEN members ask questions, share challenges and successes, and explore ways to build and sustain their programs. It is also where the OEN team posts updates and information about events, new tools, and programs. To message to the Google Group, OEN delegates can simply send an email to open-textbook-network@googlegroups.com.

With membership that spans the globe, there is bound to be someone in the Google Group who is at a similar institution, stage in their OER programming, and/or facing similar challenges as you. Know that this is a space where you are welcome to engage and lean on one another for support.

NOTE: A limitation with the Google Group is that while everyone is able to receive messages in their inbox and send emails to the listserv (open-textbook-network@googlegroups.com) regardless of what email server they use, only email addresses associated with Gmail are able to directly access the Google Group page itself. OEN members are added to the Google Group under their work email. If that address is not associated with Gmail, you can connect it to a Google Drive account, and access the Google Group directly in that manner.

If you would rather add a personal Gmail account, send that email address to Barb (thee0017@umn.edu) and she'll swap it in.

Community Hub

The Community Hub is a collection of community-created, openly licensed resources to support you in conducting OEN workshops and supporting OER initiatives at your institution. You are welcome to use these resources as you wish, and share them freely with colleagues at your institution. The Community Hub also includes an Events calendar listing upcoming events hosted by the OEN and our members.

You are welcome to extend Community Hub access to any colleagues on your campus that support faculty with open education efforts that you think would benefit from the materials (librarians, instructional designers, etc.). Your data dashboard administrator can grant Community Hub access via the dashboard's Settings tab.

OEN Delegates

Delegates act as liaisons between the OEN and your campus community, communicating with the Google Group on behalf of your campus, and sharing out resources from the Community Hub. Oftentimes these folks are open education practitioners such as librarians or instructional designers or members of an open education committee.

Each member institution or consortium is able to invite the following number of delegates to access the Google Group (numbers include your main OEN contact):

Institutional members can add up to 4 delegates total, and
Consortia can add up to 9 delegates.

Send the names and emails of the delegates to whom you would like to grant access to the Google Group from your institution or organization to Barb (thee0017@umn.edu).

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