Open Education 2014

This opening panel for the first-ever Libraries & OER track at OpenEd will set the stage for an exciting and fast-paced day of panel discussions. The panel will consist of two presentations, followed by shared Q&A at the end.

1. Lay of the Land: Libraries and OER
Nicole Allen, SPARC; Marilyn Billings, UMass Amherst

Why should libraries care about Open Education? How have libraries been involved so far? How does this relate to libraries’ work to promote Open Access? In this talk, the coordinators of the OpenEd libraries and OER track will provide context for the critical role libraries can play in the broader Open Education movement and a high-level overview of how libraries have been involved so far.

2. Librarians’ perceptions and use of OER
Rebecca Pitt, The Open University (UK)

How do librarians share the OER they create? And do they measure the impact of these resources? The OER Research Hub’s (http://oerresearchhub.org) collaboration with the Co-PILOT (Community of Practice for Information Literacy Online Teaching) project (http://delilaopen.wordpress.com/project-co-pilot/) produced a range of research findings on librarian’s perceptions and use of open educational resources (OER). The focus of our work was a questionnaire that covered topics including open licensing, institutional policies on OER and reflective practice. Working collaboratively we developed additional survey questions focused on specific areas of interest to the librarian community. This approach helped us to gather further data and provided a “snapshot” of current practice. Building on the work presented by Pitt, Graham & Zazani at OER14 this paper will examine some of the key findings from this research, which involved over 200 full- or part-time librarians, whilst reflecting on the contextual differences and issues librarians around the world face.