3rd Annual Missouri Statewide Affordable & Open Educational Resources (A&OER) Conference (DAY 3)

DAY 3 9 am-10 am (CST) Provost Panel Three Provosts from across the state discuss their experiences with A&OER on their campuses. Join us to hear provosts discuss the role of textbook affordability in student success, challenges of A&OER efforts, and determining the success of A&OER programs. Presenters: Tracy McGrady, Rita Gulstad, Mike Godard 11:00 am - 12:00 pm (CST) Introducing Lantern: A multiformat OER Publishing Tool Librarians play an essential role in the publishing of OER at colleges and universities, often providing technology services for the production, hosting, and archiving of OER. Lantern is a free and open-source digital publishing toolkit that provides workflows, templates, and instructions for publishing OER without the cost and sustainability concerns associated with repository systems and publishing platforms that are typically used. In addition to providing instructions OER publishing, Lantern also provides an entry-point to using open-source tools; no programming or command line knowledge is required to get started. Using Lantern’s step-by-step instructions, users can begin with an OER manuscript in Microsoft Word format and produce a static HTML website with multiple OER output formats entirely online (no software installation required). Lantern was developed with support from the Association of Research Libraries that provided funding for a multi-institutional Librarian Review Panel, whose feedback was incorporated in the toolkit’s initial release. This presentation will provide a high-level overview of Lantern, introduce minimal computing concepts, and invite the open education community to use Lantern on their next OER project. Learning Objectives: Presentation attendees will be able to apply the philosophy of minimal computing to library publishing technology decisions Presentation attendees will be able to identify the advantages of plain text for OER version control, distribution, and preservation Presentation attendees will be able to test a GitHub-based workflow for multiformat OER publishing Presenters: Lauren McKeen McDonald and Chris Diaz 1:00 pm -2:00 pm (CST) OER Policy: Accomplishments, Trends, and Opportunities When leveraged strategically, public policy can incentivize and support the use of OER to make learning materials affordable and accessible to students. Efforts at the state and federal level by OER advocates have resulted in victories such as the U.S. Department of Education’s Open Textbook Pilot grant program and bills in state legislatures across the country. These steps forward would not have been possible without the continued work of librarians, faculty, and students on the ground making the case for OER. In this session, we will provide an introduction to recent OER policy and practical tactics OER stakeholders can utilize to further OER policy goals in Missouri. We’ll also share insight into what’s next for OER policy, including any efforts brewing in Congress and federal agencies, which states and policy trends to watch, and how participants can engage local policymakers on OER. The last half of the session will be dedicated to discussion between the presenters and the participants on policy opportunities in 2022 and beyond. Learning Objectives: 1) Explain key developments in U.S. state and federal policy related to OER; 2) Articulate successful tactics and tools to advocate for policy in Missouri; 3) Identify opportunities to educate policymakers about the benefits of OER Presenters: Katie Steen and Trudi Radtke