Introduction

Librarians often collaborate, share, and support one another as communities of practice. The modules 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 section explores some communities of practice that help librarians manage open education programs and support faculty in finding, using, adapting, and creating OER.

Communities and Their Resources

Below are some national/international open education communities for you to explore. Consider joining one or more of these communities of practice as a way to strengthen your institutional efforts and help you reach your open education goals. States, regions, systems, or consortia may have additional communities. Rebel Cummings-Sauls maintains a list of statewide OER leaders with whom you can connect.

Please feel free to share other communities with your colleagues in the discussion for this module!

Open Education Network

The Open Education Network is community of more than 1,800 higher education institutions, consortia, and regional systems 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. Below are some of the resources developed by the Open Education Network's members and collaborators to support OER adoption, open textbook publishing, and open pedagogy:

SPARC Open Education Forum

Open education is a major focus area of SPARC, a nonprofit advocacy group of about 250 libraries and academic organizations across North America. The listserv enables members to share ideas and resources, seek advice, publicize OER projects and events, and get policy news and updates about the open education movement. Other SPARC resources include:

Automatic Textbook Billing Contract Library
InclusiveAccess.org
OER State Policy Resources

Community College Consortium for OER (CCCOER)

CCCOER is a consortium of community and technical colleges that are committed to promoting open education policy, practices, and resources. Its website features resources, an archive of webinars, case studies, and a calendar of open education conferences. CCCOER's community of practice and email group are especially useful for community college librarians who want to share best practices and learn from others (but you don't have to be at a community college to join).

Rebus Community (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

The Rebus Forum is a place to find people, processes, and tools to support your OER publishing efforts. It 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 Rebus Community also offers a Textbook Success Program.

Open Education Global

OE Global's mission is to promote, support, and advance open education around the world. It annually organizes Open Education Week and hosts the Open Education Awards for Excellence and a global conference. OEG Connect is an online community space for open educators, offering a space for the exchange of ideas, resources, and projects, and a way to directly connect with other practitioners and experts.

Next

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