Vision
Equitable access for all learners to high-quality education through openly licensed resources and open pedagogies that support their success.
Mission
To engage a diverse network of leaders and practitioners advocating for open education to promote equitable and inclusive instruction and learning.
Pillars & Objectives
Pillar #1: Advocate for open educational practices to empower contributions from diverse learners and educators who have been underrepresented.
The OER movement is deeply rooted in ensuring equitable access to information; but there is more we can do to help increase equity, diversity, and inclusion in our resources and practices. The development and use of open educational resources has the potential to create equitable learning experiences for all students and gives teachers the ability to create and customize content to meet the needs of their students
Objective 1.1
Identify methods of increasing the representation of marginalized educators and students in OER leadership positions.
Objective 1.2
Increase awareness of bias in open education resources and practices.
Objective 1.3
Promote student contributions to OER through the offering of webinars, blog posts, and scholarly articles.
Pillar #2: Advance awareness and innovation through professional development and appropriate recognition for creators and adopters of open educational resources (OER).
Continuous professional learning contributes to awareness, adoption, creation, sustainability, and scalability of openly licensed educational resources. In addition, professional development advances the community of practice, strengthens the investment in practitioners, and fosters a culture that values and recognizes excellence.
Objective 2.1
Deliver focused professional learning that contributes to meaningful impact in teaching practice, access, opportunity gaps, and student success.
Objective 2.2
Establish the framework for credentials of value that allows professionals to achieve recognition as creators and adopters of OER.
Objective 2.3
Demonstrate impact of professional development in adoption, adaption of OER, and in policies and practices that support open education through surveys or other methods.
Pillar #3: Engage academic and government leaders in collaborative policies and strategies to sustain open education and protect student privacy and data.
Open education leaders have a growing need to collaborate across institutional and state boundaries to find solutions for issues impacting OER adoption at diverse, large multi-institution systems and small individual colleges. Many open education leaders face similar issues of advocacy and implementation beyond their home institution and are looking for an opportunity to craft common solutions and eliminate duplication of efforts.
Objective 3.1
Plan at least one webinar per year with RLOE, DOERS3, or SPARC, etc. on policies and strategies to sustain open resources and protect student privacy and data.
Objective 3.2
Document higher education policy OER implementation policies to support the development of common solutions and eliminate duplication of efforts.
Objective 3.3
Share a matrix of emerging “open education” roles and their associated competencies to better identify training needs.
Objective 3.4
Evaluate and promote emerging frameworks for stewardship of open education resources and student privacy and data.
Pillar #4: Develop evidence-based metrics for measuring and sharing the impact of open education
Multiple indicators suggest that open education addresses affordability, completion, opportunity gaps, and learning. Evidence-based assessment of impact and outcomes greatly contributes to quality assurance, continuous quality improvement, and accountability. Furthermore, these efforts broaden the perception of the value of open education and its relevance in higher education.
Objective 4.1
Promote evidence-based research on the impact of open education.
Objective 4.2
Disseminate results of evidence-based research to demonstrate open education impact and to contribute to the sustainability of open initiatives.
Objective 4.3
Establish an assessment framework with evidenced-based metrics including disaggregation by student race, ethnicity, and gender, to support efforts to demonstrate the impact of open education.
Pillar #5: Develop an organizational culture that is efficient and fiscally sound, identifying projects and partnerships that create financial sustainability and meet the needs of the membership as a whole or as a subset.
The success of any organization is rooted in organizational efficiency, fiscal responsibility and sustainability, and representation of the members it serves. These efforts help define the organization as a leader in open education, resulting in identifying and meeting the needs of individuals and institutions and in developing strong partnerships with like-minded groups.
Objective 5.1
Identify funding opportunities that will continue to sustain the organization fiscally while also meeting its mission and vision.
Objective 5.2
Develop partnerships that benefit member institutions and continue to promote the organizational priorities.