Open Educational Resources Advocacy Toolkit

The OER Advocacy Toolkit was created by the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) Enabling a Modern Curriculum (EMC) OER Advocacy Project Team, comprising representatives of a range of Australian Universities.

The Project Team comprised:

• Adrian Stagg, University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) – Project Lead
• Kate Allman, Charles Sturt University (CSU)
• Steven Chang, La Trobe University
• Jennifer Hurley, RMIT University
• Alice Luetchford, James Cook University (JCU)
• Carlie Daley, Southern Cross University (SCU)
• Marianne Sato, University of Queensland (UQ)
• Lucy Walton, Western Sydney University
• Angie Williamson, Deakin University.

During the early stages of the project the following staff contributed to foundational work for the Toolkit.

• Justine Cawley, University of Queensland (UQ)
• Yasmine Hall, Charles Sturt University (CSU).

The Project Team would like to acknowledge the sponsorship and assistance of:

• Dr Kate Davis, Director, Strategy & Analytics, CAUL
• Fiona Salisbury, Program Director for Enabling a Modern Curriculum, CAUL.

The Toolkit was built and edited by Samara Rowling, Freelance Editor & Publishing Consultant.

The OER Advocacy Project Team was established following the announcement by CAUL in April 2021, calling for EOIs to participate in the Enabling a Modern Curriculum Program. The Project Team was given clear terms of reference to produce an OER advocacy toolkit.

In November 2021 the Project Team initiated a stakeholder analysis and desktop review to define the project and utilise team members’ expertise to identify best practice open advocacy initiatives and practices. This included national and international examples of advocacy in open and traditional contexts. Team members identified themes, practices and examples emerging from the review which assisted in informing the structure and content of the Toolkit. The Toolkit is focused on supporting ‘grassroots’ level OER advocacy conducted by library staff in Australian higher education. The following contacts provided valuable experience and resources to the team in the spirit of open collaboration:

• Nicole Allen, Director of Open Education, SPARC
• Dr Ginny Barbour, Director, OA Australasia
• Dr Tanya Grosz, Director of Educational Programs, Open Education Network (OEN).

Toolkit content was developed by members of the Project Team and reviewed by a critical friend from outside the Project Team with relevant expertise, before being reviewed by the Project Team as a whole. The completed Toolkit was reviewed by critical friends. The critical friend reviewers were:

• Michelle Bendall, Deakin University
• Lauren Brumby, Charles Sturt University (CSU)
• Anna Findlay, La Trobe University
• Lachlan Forsyth, Southern Cross University (SCU)
• Paul Jewell, Western Sydney University
• Anne Lennox, RMIT University
• Annette Messell, James Cook University (JCU)
• Miranda Newell, University of Queensland (UQ)
• Hugh Rundle, La Trobe University.

Icons used in the Toolkit are from The Noun Project. Unless otherwise attributed, all graphics were created by Marianne Sato for the Toolkit and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence.

The CAUL OER Advocacy Toolkit was published in September 2022. All information is current at the time of publication.

Have you noticed a mistake or a broken link? Do you have feedback you'd like us to consider for future enhancements? Email us at caul@caul.edu.au.