Open Education 2015

There is a strong interest from student leaders and university administrators at the University of Saskatchewan in providing instructors and students with alternatives to existing (expensive) textbooks. However, currently there is no system in place to inform and educate instructors about the open options that are available. This has lead three educational developers from the teaching and learning centre to take on unofficial roles of "textbook reps." The educational developers had regularly heard about (and encountered) textbook representatives from publishers whom, regardless of price, pitch their textbooks as being the best-on-the-market for students. In response to these "sales calls," the educational developers took on the role of further advocating for open textbooks, open learning systems, and other open educational resources. This quickly turned into developing a collaborative partnership with the BCcampus's open textbook project and OpenStax in order to show-off and educate instructors about what open textbooks and other open resources have to offer.

This presentation will focus on our experiences of working with individual instructors and whole departments to raise awareness about open options, answering questions related to technology and pedagogy, and trying to convince these educators that they should give open educational resources a serious consideration. We will also discuss why and how others can fill this role at their own institutions.