Open Education 2015

We all know that the call for student savings and the textbook affordability crisis have catapulted OER and open textbooks into the spotlight. But that's not the only reason why they have such a valuable role to play in higher ed and libraries. While student savings are nice, student learning is nicer! This presentation will focus on the vital role open textbooks and OER can - and should - play in instruction and advancing pedagogical and curricular change.
Librarians are at the front lines of curriculum development, pedagogical innovation, and assessment of student learning. Locally, we cultivate and value our collaborations with partners in Teaching & Learning and IT, and many of us are members of curriculum committees, and other campus governance structures that focus on impacting student learning. At the national level, in 2013, the Association of College and Research Libraries published a white paper, "Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy: Creating Strategic Collaborations for a Changing Academic Environment," where the case was made for "strategic realignment for librarians in order for libraries to be resilient in the face of tremendous change in the scholarly information environment". At that time, the intersections reflected the ACRL Information Literacy Standards and focused on the economics of the distribution of scholarship, digital literacies, and libraries' changing roles. All three intersections emphasized the importance of innovations in teaching, publishing and content rights, and technology. There are many successful examples of librarians and faculty engaging on these topics.

Today, with the launch of the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education and its emphasis on Threshold Concepts combined with the growing awareness and adoption of open educational content in higher ed we have even more opportunities for successful collaborations, particularly among scholarly communications and information literacy librarians. This presentation will make the case for how open textbooks and OER can foster collaboration between instruction librarians, scholarly communication librarians, and faculty in order to advance access to course content, improve student learning, and continue the crusade for saving students money on course content. Join us to discuss how pedagogy and assessment around open textbooks can be the key to: 1) deepening information literacy and scholarly communications awareness by including open educational content in library instruction sessions (and our captive audiences), and 2) engaging librarians and faculty in university-wide dialog about open educational content.