This Spring 2025 learning community will support instructors, instructional designers, librarians, and others interested in exploring inclusive teaching through open educational practices. Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials offered freely and under an open license, providing more equitable access to learning for all students through the elimination of textbook cost, reduction of barriers to learning, accessibility for all learners, and diversity in materials and approach. In this learning community, we will explore how OER and Open Pedagogy, the practice of engaging students in the creation of content, have the potential to empower learners and improve educational equity in higher education by giving voice to those from underserved and historically marginalized groups. We’ll also discuss how Gen-AI is reshaping the OER landscape to customize materials at a rapid and responsive pace. By engaging in discussion and application of these ideas, participants will be ready to implement open educational practices into their teaching or instructional design contexts.

Outcomes

As a participant in this community, you will be able to:

• Describe the “5 R’s” of OER

• Describe the difference between OER and other free educational resources

• Examine the impact of OER use on student academic success, educational equity, and inclusion

• Discuss how Generative AI is poised to reshape the OER landscape

• Choose ways to engage with Open (find, evaluate, remix, and create OER)

• Distinguish the types of Creative Commons licenses

• Discover the pedagogical advantages of Open Pedagogy

Takeaways

By the end of this program, you will leave prepared with the knowledge and skills to integrate OER in your teaching. You will leave the program with the following in your toolbox:

• Open resources to integrate into your own courses

• Repositories and resources for finding relevant OER

• Tools and criteria to evaluate OER

• Strategies for effective GenAI use to support OER work

• Resources at UVA and beyond to support your work

• Outlets for sharing OER work

• Tools for publishing OER

Meeting Details

There will be five in-person meetings during the Spring semester, from 12:00-1:15 PM in Shannon Library 323, with lunch provided.  
Prior to each meeting, we will explore readings in our University of Virginia OER Learning Community Guide. During our meetings, we will engage in discussion and hands-on work leading to concrete takeaways for our teaching. To support your continued work on OER, we will offer opportunities to engage in workshops and work sprints during the Spring semester.

Meeting Schedule and Topics

Eligibility

Participants will be any UVA colleagues interested in OER, including full-time and part-time faculty (tenured/tenure-track, AGFM), graduate students, postdocs, and staff. Participation will be limited to 12 participants. No prior experience with OER or Open Pedagogy is required.

Expectations

Participants should expect to attend at least four of the five sessions and commit around 1 hour to completing readings before each session to be able to engage fully in discussion and hands-on work. 

Application

Priority sign up by December 20; additional applications will be accepted as space allows  Applicants will be contacted soon thereafter. 

OER Faculty Learning Community Application

Please email Bethany Mickel at bbm9u@virginia.edu or Emily Scida ees2n@virginia.edu with any questions.

Sponsors

This learning community is organized with support from the UVA Library, the Center for Teaching Excellence, and A&S Learning Design & Technology. For more information about Open Education, see OER @ UVA and the Open Educational Resources and Open Pedagogy gallery on the CTE Teaching Hub. 

Event Details

Where: Shannon Library 323

Format: In-Person

Audience: Faculty, Graduate Students, Postdocs, Staff