Nine OhioLINK librarians selected to complete Open Education Network’s Certificate in Open Education Librarianship

OhioLINK, Ohio’s academic library consortium, announces that nine of its member institution librarians have been selected to become Open Education Network Open Education-certified librarians in 2024. Joint funding is being provided by OhioLINK and the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, which supports postsecondary education through cost-savings initiatives and policy solutions.

After completing an eight-month OEN course, the librarians will be prepared to serve as advocates for high-quality, public domain, open and adaptable educational resources, and to support and advise faculty interested in transitioning from commercial to no-cost-to-student teaching materials. OhioLINK’s long-term objective is to increase the availability of Open Educational Resource (OER)-specialist librarians at OhioLINK institutions to support faculty, possibly sharing expertise among the consortium’s libraries.

“Feedback over the last two years of our Course Redesign Grants made it clear that faculty consultations with an OER-specialist librarian were critical for successfully transitioning to teaching with open materials,” said OhioLINK Executive Director Amy Pawlowski. “Helping faculty understand what is available and to identify non-commercial teaching materials that actually meet their course learning objectives is invaluable, and we want to make this kind of expertise more widely available within the consortium.”

The nine librarians selected for 2024 will join eight member librarians around the state who have already completed the OEN certification program. The newest cohort of OhioLINK OEN-certified member librarians will be:

• Timothy Sandusky, Bowling Green State University
• Marc Jaffy, Franklin University
• Cindy Kristof, Kent State University
• Jeff Corbett, Kent State University - Geauga
• John Canter, Ohio University
• Lynn Warner, University of Cincinnati
• Nathan Wolfe, University of Rio Grande
• Lucy Duhon, University of Toledo
• Katie Maxfield, Wittenberg University

Learning objectives for the OEN course include understanding best practices in open education; identifying opportunities for alliances and collaborations; creating sustainable OER programming; and developing strategies for measuring impact. A 10-week online course is followed by five months of synchronous cohort meetings, and wraps up with a culminating project where librarians create an action plan.

The OEN certification program is synergistic with OhioLINK’s Affordable Learning program, launched in 2017. After decades of supporting research, teaching, and learning through shared academic library resources, OhioLINK began new collaborations with its members to support initiatives focused on reducing student textbook costs by substituting low- or no-cost resources in place of high-priced commercial textbooks.

“Librarians understand available resources and are experts at connecting students and faculty with material that meets their needs,” said OhioLINK Affordable Learning Director Anna Bendo. “Working with faculty to facilitate switching to OER and library-owned “free to student” teaching resources is very helpful because it takes time that faculty—many of which are adjuncts—just don’t have.”

OhioLINK recently completed its fourth round of Affordable Learning Open Course Redesign Grants. The program provides small grants that compensate faculty to participate in a four-week online course about OER as well as an individualized consultation with an OER-specialist librarian to identify resources that could replace commercial texts in their syllabus. To date, 116 faculty from 46 OhioLINK institutions across the state have participated. Feedback has been extremely positive and interest in applying for the grants continues to be strong. OhioLINK expects to offer the program again in fall and spring of 2024.