OER Events from 2024

Open Access Week, October 21-27, 2024

AI and Open Educational Resources: A Community-Centered Approach

Come explore the principles of openness and inclusivity and learn about ways UNM researchers are making education as widely available as possible through AI tools. This Open Access Week session, available to the public, will afford attendees the chance to learn about curriculum developed by University of New Mexico instructors to meet the needs of their students. This research project was tailored to support faculty and instructors across diverse disciplines to use AI for OER development.

AI tools can empower educators and learners with tools to create, customize, and adapt open educational resources. Projects from this program include the development of case studies and assignments and even a chatbot tailored to beginner and intermediate Russian language learners. Members of the Graduate and Faculty Engagement team within the University Libraries will also be on hand to talk about this program and share content and ideas. Speakers for this event include University Librarians David Gustavsen and Jennifer Jordan and UNM faculty members Jeffrey Houdek, Irina Meier, and Xaver Neumeyer.

Refreshments will be served at the in-person event happening in the Frank Waters room 105 inside Zimmerman Library. Registration for this event is recommended.

Speakers

David Gustavsen

David Gustavsen is a Librarian with the University of New Mexico Libraries and is part of the Graduate and Faculty Engagement team. He has a Master’s of Library Science from Indiana University Bloomington (2016) and a Master’s of Fine Arts from Syracuse University (2013). Before coming to UNM, David was a Humanities Librarian at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Jeffrey Houdek

Jeffrey T. Houdek, Lecturer II in the Teacher Education and Educational Leadership Department at the University of New Mexico’s College of Education and Human Sciences, brings over 30 years of experience in education. He holds a Master’s degree in Mathematics Education from Harvard University and a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to his academic work, Jeffrey owned and operated a family medical practice, overseeing strategic, financial, and operational functions. A dedicated educator and leader, he is also an 11-time Ironman triathlete, demonstrating his commitment to perseverance and excellence both in and out of the classroom.

Jennifer Jordan

Jennifer Jordan works as an Open Educational Resource (OER) Librarian in the College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences at the University of New Mexico. She is the principal investigator on a federal open textbook grant focused on growing the use of Open Education in New Mexico, as well as a former English teacher who developed OER curriculum with her peers at Central New Mexico Community College.

Irina Meier

Irina Meier is a Senior Lecturer of Russian and the Director of the Russian Program in the Department of Languages, Cultures, and Literatures. Her scholarly expertise focuses on digital humanities in teaching and research, as well as cultural studies, with a particular focus on violence in modern society, postcolonial collective memory in Chechen culture, and Russian and Chechen cinema. With regard to AI, she is interested in the role of multimodal systems in language learning and in postcolonial knowledge production in historically marginalized communities.

Xaver Neumeyer

Dr. Xaver Neumeyer is an Assistant Professor at the Anderson School of Management, University of New Mexico (UNM). His academic focus lies in the intersection of entrepreneurship, technology management, and innovation, with a particular emphasis on how these areas impact economically disadvantaged communities. His research delves into how low-income entrepreneurs utilize technology to develop and sustain their businesses, offering insights into the unique challenges and strategies employed by this demographic.

Navigating the Evolving Open Access Landscape: Local and Consortial Library Perspectives and Strategies

Explore the evolving landscape of Open Access in this session featuring two key presentations. We will begin with an environmental scan revealing how North American universities are supporting OA initiatives and addressing challenges. This will be followed by insights from an academic consortial perspective, focusing on the challenges of implementing consortial transformative agreements and sharing approaches for navigating them. This session aims to provide practical strategies for institutions looking to enhance support for authors and promote sustainable OA models.

11:00am-12:00pm

Speakers

Robyn M. Gleasner is the Resource Management Librarian for the Resources Archives and Discovery Unit at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center. She is responsible for the selection and acquisition of resources for the UNM Health Sciences Center. She negotiates license agreements with vendors and is interested in publishing trends such as open access and emerging technologies such as AI.

Laura J. Hall is the Division Head Resources Archives & Discovery at the University of New Mexico’s Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center (HSLIC). In this role, she provides leadership in collection development, preservation of special collections, technical services, and open access initiatives. Recently, she has specialized in AI integration in education, offering trainings such as the AI Crossroads series to support the university’s evolving educational landscape.

Danielle Maurici-Pollock, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor and Research Data Specialist at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Library & Informatics Center (UNM HSLIC), where she is leading efforts to expand educational offerings and services related to research data management and sharing. Her research examines the drivers, consequences, and contexts of the adoption of new information technologies and practices. Danielle is this year’s recipient of the Beta Phi Mu Award for distinguished service to education for librarianship.

George Machovec is the Executive Director of the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries. He is responsible for the overall management of the consortium and has been involved with the Prospector regional union catalog, the Alliance Shared Print Trust, e-resource licensing, and the Gold Rush collection analytics service. He was the managing editor of The Charleston Advisor and is currently the consortium column editor for the Journal of Library Administration.

NMOER Consortium's Introductory OER Workshops

The New Mexico Open Educational Resources Consortium, or the NMOER Consortium, is holding three workshops this fall to help NM educators find free, open, high-quality resources to use in their classes. These workshops are geared toward educators, students, staff, and administrators at New Mexico's post-secondary institutions.

The first workshop, titled Getting Started with OER will cover basics for researching and identifying OERs in your disciplines. The second workshop, Finding and Evaluating High Quality OER, will cover evaluation criteria for OER and planning an OER project. We will also do a Creative Commons license deep dive. And the third workshop, Developing Inclusive OER, will cover a range of accessibility and inclusivity topics.

Dates and details for these workshops are located down below:

Friday, September 27, 2024: Getting Started with OER
Friday, October 25, 2024: Finding and Evaluating High Quality OER
Friday, November 22, 2024: Developing Inclusive OER

Open Access Week

Save the date! Open Access Week happens October 21st-27th. This year's theme is Community over Commercialization, which is a continuation of last year’s theme to prioritize open scholarship. The University Libraries, Health Sciences Library and Informatics Center, and the UNM Law Library are working together to create a slate of informative and engaging events for the UNM community and beyond. Check back closer to the fall semester for a more detailed rundown of this year's events, and you can also learn about past Open Access Week events here at UNM on our OA Week library guide.

Open Textbook Pilot Program

During the 2024-2025 Academic Year, the OER initiative at UNM has the potential to save students between $466,000 and $486,000 based on historic enrollments and textbook prices. This fall, the University Libraries would like the savings to continue. The University of New Mexico Open Textbook Pilot Program is holding its annual call for proposals for OER adoption, adaptation, and creation grants. This program is designed to support faculty, instructors, and graduate students with the adoption, adaptation, and creation of OER materials into their courses as a way to increase student success.

OER work, particularly OER authorship and development, can require a high level of effort on the part of instructors. Register for this session to receive information about the program:

Find out more about the application process;
Learn about the evaluation process for applications;
Discover OER research methods and repositories;
Ask questions of the OER Librarian.

Information session dates:

The deadline to submit applications for the second annual Open Textbook Pilot Program is October 1st, 2024. These proposals will be evaluated by a subcommittee of the OER Working Group. Work in this program should begin in the spring and/or summer of 2025.

The following library guide for the grant program contains more details and the link to fill out an application: goto.unm.edu/oerotp

Related LibGuide: OER Grant Program @ UNM by Jennifer Jordan

AI-Enhanced Development of OER

Deadline to apply: May 15th, 2024

This summer, the College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences ran a Pilot Program for AI-Enhanced Open Educational Resource Creation. Participants received a stipend of $1000.

This research project is tailored to support faculty and instructors across diverse disciplines to use AI for OER development. Research and explore innovative ways to enhance student engagement, learning outcomes, and accessibility through AI-powered OER creation. Researchers will have the opportunity to create materials for their courses or even jump start a larger OER project.

The programming will include comprehensive training sessions and ongoing guidance from experienced facilitators. Faculty, staff, graduate assistants, and teaching assistants are invited to apply, as well as adjuncts working in the summer. The program ran through June and July 2024.

The CULLS team is dedicated to equipping you with the knowledge and skills to navigate AI tools effectively, regardless of your background or expertise.

Program Structure

Phase 1: Introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Week 1: Introduction to OER/Introduction to AI/Large Language Models (LLM)
Week 2: Ethical issues
Week 3: Using AI for specific tasks/prompt engineering

Phase 2: OER Creation

Weeks 4-6: OER Development and Experimentation

Phase 3: Evaluation

Week 7: AI OER Chapter for feedback
Week 8: Final evaluations

Open Textbook Pilot Program

Deadline to apply: October 1, 2024

This fall, the University Libraries will hold its annual call for proposals for OER adoption, adaptation, and creation grants. To give you time to develop a proposal over the summer, learn now about the process and guidelines.

The University of New Mexico Open Textbook Pilot Program is designed to support faculty with the adoption, adaptation, and creation of OER materials into their courses to help increase student success. OER work, particularly OER authorship and development, can require additional effort on the part of instructors. This program was created to support their work.

This program aims to support and encourage faculty to engage in new pedagogical models for classroom instruction while lowering the cost of college for students. Faculty, staff, graduate assistants, teaching assistants, and adjuncts are invited to apply. The full guidelines are on the OER Grant Program Library Guide.

Learn about the program before you go on break for the summer. The library is offering two instructional sessions for faculty and instructors interested in learning more:

UNM's 2024 Open Education Week Events

The UNM Open Educational Resources (OER) Working Group has organized exciting and informative events to raise awareness of current initiatives and celebrate the work of open educators at UNM.

Open Education Week is an annual celebration of actively sharing and learning about the latest achievements in Open Education Resources (OER). Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under a license that permits their free use, reuse, modification, and sharing with others. OERs have the ability to significantly reduce student fees on textbooks thus making academic success more accessible to all.

Open Pedagogy Workshop

March 4^th 12 pm – 1 pm

Online

The University of New Mexico’s first Open Education Week event is an Open Pedagogy Workshop developed by the Open Education Network (OEN). This workshop is free for UNM faculty, students, and staff on Monday March 4^th from noon to 1 p.m., but it requires registration. This workshop introduces faculty to the concept of open pedagogy by demonstrating how its use makes learning more inclusive. It will also include examples of open pedagogy in practice and a series of action steps and resources for those interested in opening up their pedagogy.

Open Education Network Presenters

Tanya Grosz

Director of Educational Programs, Open Education Network

Tanya is the Director of Educational Programs for the Open Education Network (OEN). She began her career as a high school English teacher before transitioning to college-level teaching and administration and completing her Ph.D. in Education and Online Teaching and Learning. In her previous role as dean at the University of Northwestern - St. Paul, she spearheaded an open education initiative which led to creation of the first Z degree in the state of Minnesota. Most recently, she served as program manager and co-creator for the Certificate in Open Educational Practices, a program founded on the principles of social justice that highlights faculty-librarian collaborations to harness the power of open pedagogy for transformative learning.

Jamie Witman

Open Educational Practices Specialist, Open Education Network

Jamie Witman is the Open Educational Practices Specialist for the Open Education Network (OEN). She facilitates the Learning Circle on Open Pedagogy and serves as the point of contact for all OEN-supported online platforms and technologies, including the Open Pedagogy Portal and Manifold Publishing Platform. She brings experience as a former Online Learning and OER Librarian where she led institution-wide OER efforts including an OER Grant Program and Open Pedagogy Faculty Fellowship. In her free time, she likes to hike, read, and spend time with her family.

UNM OER Showcase

March 5^th at 1 – 2 pm

Online & in-person in the Willard Room in Zimmerman Library

Interested in learning about OER projects in development at the University of New Mexico? On Tuesday, March 5^th from 1-2 p.m. Mountain time, hear from faculty creators from the departments of Art History, English, Spanish, and Latin American Studies. These OER projects will result in openly licensed materials aimed at making UNM students’ education more open, accessible, and equitable.

Opening Remarks: Chancellor Samuel Dosumu, UNM Valencia Campus

Moderator: Associate Dean and Professor Reilly White

OER Creators:

Professor Justine Andrews
Associate Professor Eva Rodríguez González
Assistant Professor Nahir Otaño Gracia
Professor Kathryn McKnight.

UNM Presenters

Chancellor Samuel Dosumu

Dr. Samuel “Sam” Dosumu currently serves as the Chancellor of University of New Mexico Valencia Campus.

Prior to coming to UNM, Dr. Dosumu served as the Campus CEO/Executive Dean of Pueblo Community College Southwest Campus in Durango, Colorado, where he oversaw all academic, student and business operations of the campus. He also served as the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs of Maricopa Community College District, in Tempe, Arizona.

Dr. Dosumu has spent over 25 years in higher education. He began his career as a full-time faculty teaching Computer Science and Information Systems courses. Among his accomplishments is creating the framework for the statewide common course numbering system, currently in use across the 14-college Colorado Community College System; enhancing learning modalities; focus on the adult learner and removing barriers to student completion across higher education institutions. He is a champion for Open Educational Resources, and at Maricopa Community Colleges, he oversaw the district’s OER committee and instrumental in promoting OER initiatives.

Dr. Dosumu has a B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science from Xavier University of Louisiana; MBA from Regis University, Denver, CO., and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Innovation from The University of Colorado-Denver, Denver, CO.

Justine M. Andrews

After earning her Ph.D. from UCLA in 2002, Justine Andrews joined the faculty of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of New Mexico in 2004. Professor Andrews has worked extensively in the museum field including the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Meadows Museum in Dallas, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.. Currently, she is working on a book that analyzes the relationship of identity to Gothic Art and Architecture from Nicosia and Famagusta, Cyprus. At UNM she offers courses on Western Medieval, Byzantine, and Islamic Art and Architecture with a special emphasis on the interaction between these cultures.

Eva Rodríguez González

Eva Rodríguez González (Ph.D. University of Kansas) is an Associate Professor at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She has been teaching Coordinator of the Spanish Second Language Program She teaches graduate seminars on Second language acquisition and Applied Linguistics. For more than fifteen years, she has been teaching graduate Teaching Assistants college language teaching methodology courses. She is currently serving as Special Assistant to the Dean for Outcomes and Assessment in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Nahir Otaño Gracia

Nahir Otaño Gracia is an Assistant Professor of English. Her theoretical frameworks include translation theory and practice, the global North Atlantic (Britain, Iberia, and Scandinavia), and critical identity studies. Recently, Nahir has taught courses such as Intro to World Literature: On Hate and Restorative Justice and Medieval Romance and Race. Her courses tend to cluster canonical works of literature, transgressive literature by women of color, and materials from popular culture that students already know and welcome in order to help students decenter, dismantle, and recreate the canon. Nahir is also an activist medievalist working to create a more inclusive medieval studies.

Kathryn McKnight

Kathryn McKnight is a Professor of Spanish and the Director of Latin American Studies. She studies and teaches the texts and voices of early Latin America, the colonial name for the cultures also known as Abya Yala and Améfrica Ladina. She co-authored with Jill S. Kuhnheim the Open Educational Resource, Para vivir con salud. Leyendo la salud y la literatura (2021). This textbook introduces students interested in health and society to the relationship between close reading, close listening, compassion, and equitable healthcare relationships. She is currently teaching a graduate seminar aimed at authoring an introductory text for Latin American Studies.

Reilly White

Dr. Reilly White is the Associate Dean of Teaching and Learning and an Associate Professor of Finance at the Anderson School of Management at UNM. He is the director of the student-run UNM Regent’s Portfolio and leads financial literacy projects in the community.

White earned his Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth in Finance. He co-authored, with his students, Financial Literacy for Immigrants and Refugees, a free financial literacy handbook translated into Spanish, Arabic, and Dari. White is a recipient of the Paul Bartlett Ré Emerging Promotor of Peace Award.