The ten-minute Open Ed 2021 session we watched tonight was about statewide OER opportunities and partnerships in Oklahoma. The session was entitled “Celebrating Cultural Communities: Innovative Statewide Use of OER Through Collaborative Partnerships” and began with Brad Griffith, the director of Online Learning Initiatives at the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Educations, who spoke about the challenges and groups formed to address OER in the state. The COLE OER Committee has twenty-seven organizations. There is also a membership OCO community that bought PressbooksEDU . The Online Consortium of Oklahoma also has OER training modules. Dr. Alesha Baker from Northeastern State University used the Rogers Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) framework to analyze the spread of innovation. Baker used trialability and observability rate of diffusion innovation attributes to analyze the work of the groups to disseminate knowledge about OER. Trialability is “the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited basis.” while Baker defined observability as “the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others.” Jamie Holmes, a librarian at Tula Community College spoke about testing Pressbooks and the difference between the free trial and PressbooksEDU. Holmes emphasized the success of OER efforts after trials of the more robust Pressbooks version. Dr. Pamela Louderback, library director at Northeaster State University, spoke about working with and incorporating diverse narratives and perspectives through culturally relevant teaching. Louderback mentioned intentional teaching and learning practices that include underserved learners. Louderback explained how they are amplifying indigenous knowledge through OER. For them, it is very important to center diversity and inclusion and native ways of knowing and learning are incorporated correctly. Dr. Kathy Essmiller from Oklahoma State University ended by talking about how they are embracing challenges by connecting and collaborating with people outside of their communities. To the question “how are we embracing these challenges?” Essmiller responded that through the consortia and groups they “really are better together.” It was interesting to learn how the different groups did seem to still interact or that institutions may be members of multiple OER-focused groups. The ability to trial and observe the effects on various campuses and with, for example, different librarians, is useful in establishing more effective and standard practices to then share with instructors on the different campuses.
