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OER Advocacy Toolkit

What Is OER Advocacy?

OER have tremendous potential to change education. Advocacy is a core process for addressing this change, bringing the issue to the forefront of the agenda for decision-makers. The Toolkit will help library staff communicate the value of OER toward influencing decisions that will impact teaching and learning at their organisations and beyond.

Successful OER advocacy requires a range of skills, knowledge and evidence, including:

  • passion about the concept of openness
  • the ability to collaborate across the university and connect people and ideas
  • clarity on the economic and pedagogical benefits of OER
  • insight into how the local policy environment may constrain or enable OER use
  • understanding of the freedoms associated with different open licensing arrangements
  • access to practical examples of OER use to illustrate key points and inspire action
  • current knowledge of the trends of practice and scholarship concerning open education
  • ability to engage audiences effectively by actively listening to concerns, linking open education approaches as possible solutions or mitigating strategies, and a willingness to lead initiatives arising from this approach
  • capacity to leverage students, administrators, faculty and library staff as advocacy partners.

Adapted from 'Advocacy' in the OER Toolkit by The Learning Portal College Libraries Ontario, licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 licence.

The Role of the OER Advocate

The OER advocate – whether hired into this role or undertaking these activities as part of another position – is often the first point of contact at their institution when questions concerning OER arise. The advocates’ role encompasses:

  • teaching about OER and often intellectual property rights, to individuals, committees, working groups and discipline teams
  • advising and encouraging the adoption and use of openly licensed materials
  • gathering relevant and compelling evidence within the institution to support the case for OER
  • identifying existing institutional goals that can be achieved or enhanced by OER initiatives and communicating this value to stakeholders.

This last point is especially important for successful OER advocacy. It helps to align OER with currently supported projects and initiatives, so that OER isn’t perceived as 'yet another thing' that will increase workload for faculty, administrators and students without providing any tangible benefit. Instead, OER advocates should try to integrate OER into other activities at the institution and tie OER benchmarks into other activities constituents are already engaging in. For example:

  • Can OER be tied to the development of online courses, regular assessment of textbooks, scheduled curriculum review or perhaps accreditation work?
  • Are there grant projects at the institution that might benefit from the inclusion of OER?
  • Could engagement with OER be recognised in learning and teaching components of academic promotion applications?
  • Does the institutional learning and teaching or strategic plan include outcomes OER can contribute to? Consider any outcomes related to access, participation, retention, attrition or student achievement.

This is the lens for OER advocates to ask:

  • How can OER improve our success in this initiative?
  • How do OER add value to this situation or desired outcome?
  • Why would staff engage with OER?

An OER advocate’s main focus is on people and their institution. Listening to and understanding their motivations, goals, pressures and aspirations is the first step toward linking people with open education. 

Types of OER Advocacy - Sample Strategies

Librarians can perform multiple roles in advocating for OER both as a catalyst and central collaborative leader for awareness building, adoption oversight and project management. Librarians can play a role in identifying and cultivating partnerships with student organizations, government entities, multiple institutions and the profession. Examples of internal organizational advocacy strategies can include:

  • cultivating networks
  • awareness-raising
  • promoting
  • targeting
  • generating interest
  • leveraging opportunities
  • establishing partnerships
  • providing professional development.

There are many options and opportunities for advocating for OER included in the Create an Action Plan for OER Advocacy section of this guide as your advocacy strategy should be tailored to the need and the situation. Examples of strategies targeting different groups within the university include:

Target Group

Strategy

Librarian advocating to a committee [Word 673KB]

Attending meetings to:

  • raise the profile of existing projects
  • secure interest and commitment
  • develop a wider network of contacts within the university.

Librarian advocating OER to academics [Word 121KB]

Discussing the benefits of OER, including:

  • equity and access
  • authentic learning
  • adaptable formats. 

Librarian advocating for open textbooks [Word 379KB]

Strategies can include:

  • raising awareness of open textbooks
  • identifying units or courses with challenging access to texts
  • providing professional learning.

More details of these strategies are included in Create an Action Plan for OER Advocacy.

OER Advocacy Top Tips

OER Advocacy Top Tips

Focus on the why – Focus on the problems OER can solve for your stakeholders. For administrators, this might be textbook costs. For faculty, it might be lack of quality or relevant content.

 

 Maintain objectivity – Listen to your stakeholders and maintain your position of why OERs might be of benefit to them. Being aware of the barriers they face will better equip you to relate to their challenges.

 

Engage the engaged – At the early stages of change, spend much of your effort on those who are listening. These are the early adopters and they align with your 'why'.

 

Reinforce the change – Keep your early adopters engaged through reinforcement strategies. Seek their feedback, showcase their work and know what they are doing next.

Evaluation Checkpoint

Evaluation Checkpoint

 

Evaluate your understanding of OER – Do you need a deeper understanding of OER to support your advocacy? This includes keeping and eye out for CAUL and other professional development offerings.

 

Understanding of advocacy – Do you need focused strategies for your advocacy? Have a look at the next section of this Toolkit, Create an Action Plan for OER Advocacy.

 

Next Steps

The next step in OER advocacy is to formulate an action plan. Developing an action plan will help you tailor your advocacy to your target audience. By understanding the needs of your audience and the issues that are important to them, you can share your message in a form and format that matches their priorities, making your advocacy more effective.