The task force was formed in response to the growing convergence of interest and activity systemwide coalescing around Open Educational Resources (OER) and other digital and online instructional and learning resources as high-impact avenues by which to alleviate student financial burdens, increase college affordability, and enable more students to feel like they belong and can succeed at our universities.
The task force launched Momentum on Open Educational Resources to create awareness of and transparency around system-wide OER achievements and to serve as inspiration for continued engagement with OER. The task force centered work on UT System’s student success framework and identified four priority areas for future OER expansion:
- Implementing best practices on OER and course materials disclosure;
- Incentivizing faculty knowledge of and engagement with OER in teaching;
- Developing a system-wide approach to how institutions work with commercial publishers on course materials and learning resources; and
- Identifying shared metrics that allow us to measure OER impact on ROI, student success, and other measures.
The goals and work of the task force aligned with the UT System's student success framework, focused around the three pillars of Finances, Advising and Belonging. The Task Force shared its report and recommendations with Chancellor J.B. Milliken in September 2020. Following guidance from UT System and institutional executive leadership, four priority areas have been selected from among the report recommendations for more immediate follow-up.
The full report and recommendations can be found here.
The task force also issued a message to faculty and a statement on OER during COVID-19.
UTSA librarians continue to represent UTSA on UT System OER task forces, sharing campus work on OER and advocating for continued support.