Advocacy
UOW Library: In-Step with Our Academic Community
University of Wollongong
Samantha Hutchinson; Christina Salopek; and Susan Jones
Overview
This case study demonstrates how the University of Wollongong (UOW) librarians advocate for the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) to the academic teaching and learning community. We take a strengths-based approach to showcasing their value, impact, and benefits in enhancing accessibility and enriching the broader suite of resources available to support teaching, learning and research needs.
In 2023, the UOW Library commenced a deep dive into the open scholarship supports and services available to our academic community. UOW is committed to creating knowledge for a better world and empowering students for their future as clearly articulated in the institution’s 2020-2025 Strategic Plan. The project is directly aligned with our goal of making it easy to find, use and create content, and UOW’s institutional commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The UOW Library has 56.3 FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) staff and our Liaison Services team consists of the following:
- The Learning & Engagement (L&E) team, with 3.8 FTE staff, are focused on supporting the teaching & learning (T&L) endeavours of UOW academics.
- The Research & Engagement (R&E) team, with 5.4 FTE staff, are focused on supporting researchers and the institution’s research excellence goals.
As a Library, we have transitioned from a transactional relationship with academics and students, towards one of deep understanding across the research and teaching and learning lifecycles. Integral to this work is an evidence-based and user-centred approach, partnering with our academic and student community to collaboratively advance open scholarship from all perspectives.
Using this case study
In this chapter, we examine:
- How UOW Library is building awareness, interest, and appetite in partnership with our academic community while ensuring the sustainability of this work
- Library advocacy to lift the profile of open educational resources (OER) benefits as part of the suite of resources clearly aligned to the teaching and learning agenda at UOW
- Lessons learnt from the early adopters at other institutions
- How to leverage existing relationships, and build new ones, across faculty and professional units at UOW.
Key stakeholders
Initially, the key stakeholders of the scoping project included the Library, the Research Services Office (RSO), and the Graduate School of Research (GRS).
As the project progressed, it became evident that our stakeholders extended across three distinct cohorts:
- Library staff, in particular the Learning and Engagement, Resource Sharing, and Collection Development teams, who interact directly with academics regarding resources used for teaching and research purposes;
- Academic staff, particularly subject coordinators managing large student enrolments and essential textbooks and resources for their subjects;
- UOW students who need access to essential library resources for their studies and who encounter issues, particularly with limited or restricted access to high-demand resources relevant to their subjects.
The success of the scoping project was driven by the active involvement of our academic community. Their perspectives and insights were integral to shaping our collaborative approach to the adoption of OER for teaching, learning and research purposes.
We recognised the importance of partnering with academics to achieve the best and most equitable outcomes for students. Ensuring this approach was sustainable and scalable has been a central focus throughout the project’s development and implementation.
Background information
The Library-led initiative responded to a pressing need for equitable, accessible, open, and cost-neutral learning experiences, as highlighted by feedback from academics and students facing difficulties in accessing many of their subject’s essential learning materials.
The scoping project emerged in response to concerns and frustrations expressed by UOW academics and students especially during peak periods in the academic calendar. Staff and students continually encountered barriers to information such as restrictive user license models for ebooks, limited availability of required editions for essential texts, and challenges students faced in purchasing costly textbooks. Data from the Library’s Chat service (Ref Analytics) further underscored the need; revealing a consistent demand for ebooks required by large undergraduate and postgraduate coursework cohorts for assessment tasks and tutorial participation. These issues hinder effective learning and raise equity concerns, as the cost and accessibility of textbooks disproportionately impacts students.
Academics, particularly those interested in exploring alternative and complementary resources, expressed a growing curiosity and interest in the OER model to alleviate these access challenges and to enrich and align with their subjects in an open and equitable manner. However, the distributed nature of the OER landscape posed difficulties for faculty to navigate without adequate support. The Library recognised the importance of engaging OER advocates or champions to guide their peers in adopting open resources, thus addressing some of these challenges and fostering a more equitable and supportive learning environment.
Project description
The project aimed to elevate the profile of OER among UOW academics by encouraging the adoption of existing OER, with the long-term goal of inspiring the UOW academic community to adapt or create their own OER.
In 2022, the L&E team developed an introductory OER library guide as part of the Library’s Services for Teaching and Learning online supports. This guide introduced academics to the concept and benefits of OER, how OER differs from open access resources as part of a holistic approach to developing and understanding the application of open licensing and to highlight key OER discovery platforms. Academics were also encouraged to seek further assistance from the team to identify suitable OER in their subject area.
A key element of the approach is our tactical communications strategy, to integrate the OER agenda and its benefits into the annual communication channels of the L&E team. These communications were adapted for different contexts and included:
- Faculty Education Committee reports
- Presentations to Schools and Faculty
- Individual conversations with academics and subject coordinators.
These conversations centred on partnering to identify suitable resources from both the Library’s collections and authoritative OER repositories to support new and existing subject reading lists.
Further, L&E librarians shared success stories of assisting academics across various disciplines in searching for and curating potential OER for their specific subject needs back into our academic community. Our work as part of a broader open research project actively asked about use of open resources in both the T&L and research contexts, and throughout the project, the team actively pursued identifying OER champions to foster ongoing collaboration with us and to connect them with resources of interest within a sector-wide OER landscape.
Key outcomes
While our progress in identifying OER champions took longer than anticipated, we are pleased to acknowledge and celebrate the successes we have achieved so far. One recent example is a first year History subject featuring a World History OER textbook chapter as a key reading. We share these examples of Open Pedagogy within, and beyond, the Library to raise awareness and support for Open Educational Practice (OEP) across the institution.
Looking forward, we aim to enhance the visibility of OER within the Library’s SEARCH (UOW Library’s main catalogue) results. We are adding openly available resource lists to our discipline-based library guides and investigating the creation of distinct collections within our catalogue to highlight these materials to our staff and student communities. This work will better position these resources alongside our subscription-based and licensed resources. This integration will further support our goal of making OER, and other openly available content, a more prominent and accessible option for academics. This work aligns with Goal 1 of UOW’s 2020-2025 Strategic Plan of empowering students for their future (University of Wollongong 2023), a Library goal of making it easy to find, use and create content, and Goal 4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Quality Education, which fundamentally focuses on the provision of more inclusive and equitable access to educational materials.
To strengthen our communication efforts and support for academics, the L&E team plans to leverage our information literacy expertise in threshold concepts and scaffolded learning. We aim to refresh and improve the current OER library guide (as of August 2024) alongside the section on ordering new resources and how we clarify issues, concepts and relationships surrounding the often confusing world of copyright, Public Domain, open access, and OER. By incorporating a range of communication methodologies, we hope to clarify and better illustrate key concepts to aid our end-users’ understanding of options for navigating resource issues, such as the complexity and limitations of commercially licensed ebooks compared to the openness and flexibility of OER and other materials available using Creative Commons licenses. These enhancements will better equip the team in our one-on-one consultations with academics, particularly as they prepare for new teaching sessions. Additionally, we will continue to seek opportunities to engage and support the growing pool of dedicated OER champions.
Learnings and recommendations
As a small team, relative to other University libraries in Australia, we took an approach of capacity building, awareness raising and tactical communication strategies as our first position. Coupled with our exceptional relationship building expertise, a reputation for positivity, enthusiasm, and a solutions-focused approach, we have taken an incremental approach. This approach is situated in pragmatism – it is essential that we develop a sustainable and scalable approach for both the UOW Library and our academic community.
This work underscores the importance of being consistently aware and empathetic toward how academics perceive resource issues in their discipline and how they might respond to our well-intentioned approaches. Academics appreciate access to our expertise and guidance; but for many academics initially navigating and making headway in the OER environment this can still be an ‘on top of’ versus ‘instead of’ way of curating learning resources. We have learned that they will expect and value practical measures of support.
Champions Statements
This project underscored the value of collaboration and communication towards building strong partnerships and maintaining clear communication with key stakeholders. Developing cross-institutional partnerships was particularly valuable, as it enabled us to connect with other academic libraries to address central concerns and have a forum to discuss our questions regarding planning and strategising best-practices for OER adoption and implementation. These partnerships allowed us to explore both successes and challenges, gaining a deeper understanding of the complexities involved in advocating for OER. Fostering collaborative internal and external partnerships was pivotal in shaping our advocacy strategies for OER within the academic community. This included enhancing the visibility and understanding of OER across various communication platforms, such as Faculty Education Committees and more informal faculty-based newsletters, where the concept, value, and benefits of OER were shared.
The role of the L&E Librarian is uniquely positioned to engage directly with our academic staff, facilitating meaningful, solution-driven conversations that listen to and act on addressing needs while offering realistic Library informed perspectives. We recognise and emphasise that OER should not be promoted in isolation, but rather within the broader context of licensed library resources and open access materials available to support academics with curating or developing relevant learning content and making it accessible to their students. This approach assists academics in understanding how OER can complement their teaching and their students’ learning needs. We carefully consider the language and imagery we use when discussing OER, especially when helping to guide academics new to teaching, for example:
- What language and phrases might an early career academic use when discussing these types of resources?
- What images come to their mind when we as librarians mention terms such as ‘OER’?
This ensures that our conversations are supportive and align with the academics in their understanding, rather than projecting our own knowledge as librarians navigating the digital information environment.
In practice
Advice to share:
- Implementing OEP requires a tactical and collaborative approach. Drawing from our experience, we recommend beginning with professional development opportunities, such as the CAUL (Council of Australian University Librarians) OER Professional Development Program. Professional development initiatives are invaluable for building foundational knowledge and skills central to building awareness and advocacy towards a transformational and equitable model of learning. Do not underestimate how your learnings can influence colleagues in your library and help them to develop and deepen their own understanding. Reciprocity is essential, and we embrace this principle at UOW Library.
- Engaging the academic community early is essential to build an appetite of awareness and interest for the benefits, value, and impact of OER on teaching, learning and research. Advocacy through a community of library OER champions ensures academics understand our role in leading and supporting OER initiatives and are supported by UOW librarians’ expertise. It is important to consider the student experience and student voice and use evidence of persistent access issues to build a compelling case for OEP. Aligning the library’s approach in building awareness for OER with the institution’s strategic goals, particularly around equity and the principles of the Australian Universities Accord, strengthens advocacy efforts.
- Practical support is highly valued by academic staff, for example assisting with locating existing OER, often more than access to expertise alone. Therefore, it is important to be realistic about the scale of what can be achieved and maintained. Providing tangible assistance that addresses immediate needs fosters stronger engagement with OEP initiatives. Additionally, utilising the library’s digital environment to drive evidence-based decision-making is crucial. Analysing data on textbook inaccessibility and publisher restrictions helps inform OEP strategies and builds broader support within the institution.
- Finally, never underestimate the value of reward and recognition, both within your institution and the sector. In 2023 the Library initiated an Open Access Week Award, and as OER adoption and creation increase we will consider the initiation of an OER Award.
Acknowledgement of peer reviewers
The authors gratefully acknowledge the following people who kindly lent their time and expertise to provide peer review of this chapter:
- Melissa Jurd, Education and Research Librarian, Southern Cross University
How to cite and attribute this chapter
How to cite this chapter (referencing)
Hutchinson, S., Salopek, C., & Jones, J. (2024). UOW Library: In-step with our academic community. In Open Education Down UndOER: Australasian Case Studies. Council of Australian University Librarians. https://oercollective.caul.edu.au/openedaustralasia/chapter/uow-library-in-step-with-our-academic-community/
How to attribute this chapter (reusing or adapting)
If you plan on reproducing (copying) this chapter without changes, please use the following attribution statement:
UOW Library: In-step with our academic community by Sam Hutchinson, Christina Salopek, Susan Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
If you plan on adapting this chapter, please use the following attribution statement:
*Title of your adaptation* is adapted from UOW Library: In-step with our academic community by Sam Hutchinson, Christina Salopek, Susan Jones, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Further resources
- Connolly, T. (2013). Visualization Mapping Approaches for Developing and Understanding OER. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 14(2), 129-155. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v14i2.1532
- Tur, G., Havemann, L., Marsh, J., Keefer, J., & Nascimbeni, F. (2020). Becoming an open educator: Towards an open threshold framework. Research in Learning Technology, 28. https://doi.org/10.25304/rlt.v28.2338
- United Nations. Sustainable Development Goals. https://sdgs.un.org
- University of Wollongong. (2023). UOW 2020-2025 Strategic Plan. http://documents.uow.edu.au/content/groups/public/@web/@pmcd/documents/doc/uow263521.pdf
Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others.