Open Educational Resources Advocacy Toolkit

OER have tremendous potential to change education. Advocacy is a core process for addressing this change, bringing the issue to the forefront of the agenda for decision-makers. The Toolkit will help library staff communicate the value of OER toward influencing decisions that will impact teaching and learning at their organisations and beyond.

Successful OER advocacy requires a range of skills, knowledge and evidence, including:

• passion about the concept of openness
• the ability to collaborate across the university and connect people and ideas
• clarity on the economic and pedagogical benefits of OER
• insight into how the local policy environment may constrain or enable OER use
• understanding of the freedoms associated with different open licensing arrangements
• access to practical examples of OER use to illustrate key points and inspire action
• current knowledge of the trends of practice and scholarship concerning open education
• ability to engage audiences effectively by actively listening to concerns, linking open education approaches as possible solutions or mitigating strategies, and a willingness to lead initiatives arising from this approach
• capacity to leverage students, administrators, faculty and library staff as advocacy partners.

Adapted from 'Advocacy' in the OER Toolkit by The Learning Portal College Libraries Ontario, licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 licence.