Professional Development

AAC&U Announces 2022-2023 Institute on Open Educational Resources

• By Rhea Kelly
• 03/15/22

The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is now accepting applications for its 2022-2023 Institute on Open Educational Resources, a year-long training program on designing and implementing OER plans on campus. Through activities, project work and sessions with expert consultants, teams of faculty, staff and administrators will develop strategies to accelerate OER adoption at their institutions. Campuses pursuing affordability, student success or student learning goals are "ideally suited" for the Institute, according to a news announcement.

The Institute will begin with a virtual kickoff event on July 14-15, 2022. Campus teams will participate in Institute activities through the fall and spring semesters to develop and put into practice an OER plan, and interact with Institute faculty as that plan is implemented and evolves. In addition, participants will attend monthly webinars and cross-institutional planning meetings; a day-long midpoint event in preparation for the spring semester; and a capstone closing event on July 12-14, 2023. All activities will take place online.

Goals of the work include:

• "Articulate a clear, compelling, and communicable purpose for the OER work or initiative under development or expansion, including key goals, affordability aspirations, student learning gains, student success metrics, and intended benefits for faculty, students, and the institution;
• "Discern evidence-based theory-to-practice models and strategies that connect research and scholarship with effective approaches to developing, utilizing, and adopting OER;
• "Identify collaborators and form key partnerships with those who can broaden the argument for resources, support, and adoption of OER within your campus context;
• "Utilize evidence-based innovation and leadership strategies to increase the probability of successful scaling of your OER initiative; and
• "Create a comprehensive OER action plan for team members and campuses to implement with measurable benchmarks for charting success."

Participating teams are required to have at least five team members and are encouraged to include an assortment of campus roles, such as senior academic officers, faculty members, librarians, Center for Teaching and Learning staff members, learning technologies professionals, student affairs leaders and assessment and curriculum specialists. There is a registration fee of $5,000 per five-member team from AAC&U member institutions or $6,200 per five-member team from nonmember institutions. The deadline for applications in April 29, 2022. For more information, visit the AAC&U site.