International Open Access Week is an occasion to promote and celebrate the equitable sharing of knowledge. One way Villanova, through the Affordable Materials Project(AMP), encourages knowledge sharing is by supporting faculty who adopt open educational resources (OER). The Open Educational Resource Faculty Adoption Grant has much to celebrate!

Open educational resources are teaching and learning materials, often textbooks, that are typically free to use and a have Creative Commons license permitting reuse, adaption, and sharing. This means students don’t have to pay for OER e-textbooks and faculty can customize them to meet their learning objectives. The OER Faculty Adoption Grant was established to recognize faculty for all the effort that goes into revising syllabi, lesson plans, assignments, and assessments.

Past OER Faculty Adoption Grant recipients shared insights and tips about their experiences in forums recorded in 2022 and 2021.  Students participated too and noted the use of OER offered a welcome reprieve from financial pressures and contributed to their class engagement and participation.

Past awardees, Dr. Stephanie Katz Linkmeyer and Professor Jeanne Liedtka, spearheaded departmental evaluations of OER for General Chemistry I (CHEM 1151) and OER for Corporate Responsibility and Regulation (VSB 2007) which resulted in OER adoptions.  Fall 2022 is the first semester OER will be used by all sections of these courses, resulting in significant cost savings for students.

Applications are being accepted for the OER Faculty Adoption Grant through Nov. 18, 2022. Subject librarians can assist with finding suitable OER. For eligibility requirements, review criteria, and grant requirements, click here.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Linda Hauck, MLS, MBA, is Business Librarian

Villanova faculty, staff, students, and friends are cordially invited to join the Affordable Materials Project (AMP) in celebrating faculty members, Jeanne Liedtka, JD, and Valentina DeNardis, PhD, who were awarded Open Educational Resource (OER) Faculty Adoption Grants for 2021-22 in a virtual forum on Wednesday, March 9, from 3-4 p.m.

At this event, faculty will share their insights into the benefits and challenges posed by redesigning their courses using FREE, OPENLY LICENSED TEXTBOOKS. Students will also share feedback on using OER.

This event is perfect for faculty considering or curious about OER and everyone interested in educational affordability, accessibility, and inclusivity. This ACS-approved event is co-sponsored by the AMP and Falvey Memorial Library.

REGISTER HERE

Please be sure to join us at this event to celebrate faculty who support textbook affordability at Villanova!

Regina Duffy is a Communication and Marketing Program Manager at Falvey Memorial Library.

Jeanne Liedtka, JD, and Valentina DeNardis, PhD, are the Fall 2021 OER Adoption Grant recipients.  This pilot grant, generously funded by the Associate Vice Provost of Teaching and Learning, is designed to encourage faculty to select free, openly licensed textbooks as primary teaching materials.  Open educational resources (OER) improve affordability and support flexible, open teaching practices, and accessibility, which have been exposed at critically important for all students during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Applications for the Spring 2022 OER Adoption Grant are open until October 30, 2021.

Liedtka will teach BL 2185, The Law of Contracts and Sales with Introduction to Contracts, Sales and Product Liability by Mayer, Warner, Siedel & Lieberman supplemented by her lecture notes.  No stranger to teaching with OER, Liedtka had previously transitioned BL 2149, Intellectual Property Law for Business, to using a free, open access textbook.

DeNardis will teach Latin 3001, Reading in Authors using Dickenson College Commentaries, OVID,  Amores Book I, Poetry in Translation as well as scholarly articles. DeNardis, a leader in adopting digital materials, will use this as a model for  Greek and Latin literature classes.

Together these two classes will save students over $10,000 in the first year.

Valentina DeNardis, PhD

Jeanne Liedtka, JD

Join us in celebrating five faculty members awarded OER Faculty Adoption Grants for 2020-21 in a virtual forum. Faculty will share their insights into the benefits and challenges posed by redesigning their courses using free, openly licensed textbooks. Students will share feedback on using OER. This event is perfect for faculty considering or curious about OER and everyone interested in educational affordability, accessibility, and inclusivity.

Existing and emerging financial limitations, COVID-19, and the pivot to online learning has exposed challenges that many students face securing the course materials they need to succeed. This workshop is for faculty and academic support staff to learn about strategies and resources available across the university to reference whenever a student discloses being in need of course materials. The workshop will run for approximately 30 minutes with time for Q&A afterwards.

Please REGISTER at the following link:

https://villanova.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIpceCgrDMsEtKvuA9QzKv4VNbD9YiOODkQ

Questions? Contact Linda Hauck, Business Librarian. For more information about the Affordable Materials Project, please visit: https://library.villanova.edu/amp/index.html