As the cost of textbooks and other educational materials continues to rise, faculty have been turning to Open Educational Resources (OER) as a solution to keep student costs down and bring equity to their courses. OER are freely available educational materials that are openly licensed or in the public domain, allowing for use and adaptation. They include textbooks, lecture notes, courses, videos, software, and learning activities.
Currently, the Teaching & Learning Center (TLC) and University Libraries (UL) offer a variety of programs, resources, and services to faculty who are looking to adopt, adapt, and create OER. The TLC runs two programs for faculty who want to create their own open electronic textbooks: the eTextbook Initiative and the Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT), while University Libraries offers resources via their web site and one-on-one consultations for faculty who are looking to adopt and integrate existing OER into their courses.
Since the demand for these resources has continued to increase, the TLC and UL are working together to create and distribute a survey to better understand how the faculty use, create, and adapt OER at West Chester University. This will help both units determine how to support faculty with their OER-related efforts in the future.
If you have any questions about the survey, please direct them to:
- Marc Drumm (mdrumm@wcupa.edu), Senior Instructional Designer, Teaching & Learning Center
- Kerry Walton (kwalton2@wcupa.edu), Associate Dean for Academic Services (Interim), University Libraries
The survey will close on December 9, 2024 (we have extended the deadline).
