As a strategy to introduce open educational practices at an institution, a grant program can provide a vehicle for organizational awareness raising and practice development. At Deakin University, an Open Educational Resources (OER) grant program was introduced in 2021 to foster the development of Open practice. Over 3 rounds of grants, the program has iterated from a fixed level of grants to a tiered structure and as an internally recognized program, it contributes to establishing and fostering open practice at the university.
This presentation aims to summarize 3 years of practice learnings from an OER grant program from the initial establishment through to the current program progressing towards institutional maturity. Over this time, the infrastructure to publish resources has been developed, processes to support open educational practices have been established and channels for communication created. The presentation will discuss the challenges of commencing a program at an institution where open educational practice was not organizationally prevalent. From a point of institutional immaturity in open education, library processes, expertise, and infrastructure has developed alongside the open practice of the grant recipients as needs occurred. As the grant projects develop a range of OER from textbooks to videos and other learning object types and formats, a range of solutions and practices needed to be established adding complexity to the program challenges.
Additional to the challenges, this presentation will also cover the wins and positive outcomes of implementing a grant program to strategically increase open practice. Supporting the projects requires collaboration across areas of the university including the library, learning designers and academics from across the faculties. These interactions between staff from different divisions make open the business of everyone right across the institutional environment. From establishing touchpoint of contact to managing relationships with contacts, the library coordinates the program to achieve strategic goals. Over time, not only has the grant program developed but also the aims of the program are moving towards a maturity of practice: from learning about OER towards Open Educational Practice, renewable assessment and creative, interactive OER development.
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[Session 7C]: Open Publishing - the Australian ExperienceAuthor KeywordsOER programs, Open educational practice, OER publishing, Open education strategies
