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The Perfect Union
Open educational resources can strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion
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Open Educational Resources (OER)
With the high costs of higher education a top concern of students (not to mention their families), open educational resources (OER) have emerged as a foundational strategy for improving student equity and college affordability.
OER play a key role in AAC&U’s mission of democratizing higher education. Faculty and students can use, customize, and share these free educational materials, from single lessons to entire textbooks, regardless of the size and type of institution.
But affordability is only one benefit of adopting and implementing OER in higher ed settings. AAC&U has partnered with members in advocating for ways to use OER as a lever to develop more equitable, inclusive, and diverse classrooms. Successful OER initiatives do not need to be massive, resource-intensive, or exhaustive. They do, however, require strategic planning, targeted approaches, collaborative leadership, and goal-oriented advocates. AAC&U’s Office of Curricular and Pedagogical Innovation (OCPI) has a variety of programming and events available to support our members in such efforts.
Institute on Open Educational Resources (OER)
Open educational resources (OER), such as textbooks freely available through an open license, help narrow performance gaps, reduce failure rates, and level the academic playing field. Through the year-long online Institute on OER, participating teams gain the skills needed to design, launch, expand, and hasten their own campus OER plans for large-scale engagement and adoption. Teams interact with expert consultants and participate in regular webinars and planning sessions.
Forum on Digital innovation
AAC&U’s Forum on Digital Innovation is a one-day, online event taking place in February each year. The Forum is centered around three tracks: open learning practices, ePortfolios, and digital innovation in education. This event offers interactive, concurrent sessions and workshop opportunities for participants to share their research and practice, while also highlighting a range of faculty development approaches, leadership strategies, and student voices that are being leveraged successfully to prepare and facilitate campus utilization of established and emerging technologies, including those that serve as disruptors of current practice.
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Conference\
Forum on Digital Innovation
Discover innovative ways of leveraging digital technologies to advance your goals for student learning and for improving equity, affordability, and access.
Publication
Leveraging Open Educational Resources to Advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Guide for Campus Change Agents
This publication provides evidence-based strategies that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion goals while also instantiating open educational resources (OER) within the mainstream of the instructional culture of a campus.
Institute\
Institute on Open Educational Resources
Designed to advance campus goals related to affordability, student success, & student learning, this yearlong institute supports the development and implementation of plans for large-scale engagement and adoption of OER.