Diffusion of Innovations theory (Rogers, 2003) states that potential adopters moving through the innovation-decision process consider the innovation’s relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability. Rogers (2003) claimed that an individual's perception of these characteristics, or attributes, had a direct impact on whether and to what degree an innovation is adopted and diffused throughout an organization or system. The purpose of this presentation is to share, through the lens of Diffusion of Innovations theory, how members of the Online Consortium of Oklahoma supported the adoption and diffusion of the use of an online publishing platform intended to support consortial-wide adoption, modification, and creation of OER. The 25 member institutions of Online Consortium of Oklahoma (OCO) include two-year institutions, four-year institutions, technical institutes, and doctoral degree granting institutions. As a result, OCO’s strategic vision takes into consideration a broad range of needs, interests, and goals. As members of the OER subcommittee envisioned how to promote use of the publishing platform to each of their institutions, it became apparent that one simple on-boarding process for use across all institutions was ineffective. Faculty introduced to the platform would express interest but those who took additional steps to learn more about its use seemed to be those who had the opportunity to observe use of the platform by a respected peer or colleague with whom they were personally acquainted. Additionally, the group noticed faculty initially resistant to using the platform became enthusiastic about its use once given access to its full capacity. In this lightning talk, representatives from OCO member institutions will describe how they intentionally addressed observability and trialability to support the adoption and diffusion of the publishing platform and statewide use of OER.

Book Description: Higher education and PreK12 are vastly different domains. Well-intended, collaborative relationships do not always result in hoped-for creation of useful and reusable learning materials for PreK12 classrooms, nor of effective partnerships. This toolkit is designed to address known gaps in knowledge and practice which limit the development of generative relationship-building processes between higher education faculty and PreK12 educators. The toolkit which is part of the Scholarly Communication Notebook and is intended to prepare and position practicing and future academic librarians and interested higher education faculty, staff, and students consulting with librarians to address these gaps related to outreach to PreK12, and expand use and re-usability of learning resources through informed practices regarding copyright, open-licensing, and accessibility. Designed for use in formal graduate-level library and information science courses and relevant for self-study by academic librarians already in practice, this toolkit includes videos, presentations, transcripts, activities, guides, assignments, and assessment tools for learning and delivery by librarians to faculty and students in higher education, and for use by interested instructional designers, other faculty, staff, and graduate students seeking to improve their service to PreK12 educators.

The OER Toolkit aims to improve equitable access to open learning resources and services to college students by providing a province-wide academic support platform for faculty to use while designing courses and assignments. The Toolkit is a one-stop guide to open educational resources, providing faculty and library staff with tools and information to understand, engage with, create, and sustain OER in their work and practice.

The Toolkit is designed to be used by anyone involved with OER at an academic institution, whether you are part of a team that is collaborating to create OER, a library staff member who is supporting OER development and use, an advocate for OER at your institution, or an instructor seeking to incorporate OER and open pedagogy in the classroom. The primary purpose of this Toolkit is to support faculty and library staff at Ontario colleges; however, it is openly available for use beyond the Ontario college community.

The Open Educational Resources (OER) in Texas Statewide Playbook is a resource developed by practitioners and advocates actively involved in the labor of open education to guide new and expanding OER work at institutions of higher education. The Playbook is the result of partnerships between the Division of Digital Learning, the Institution for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) – creators of OER Commons and experts in open education practice and research – and faculty, librarians, staff, and administrators from institutions and systems across Texas. It aims to support institutions as they work to build capacity and drive systems change around OER. It also serves as a guiding document for institutions that have not yet engaged in OER work or taken advantage of existing programs and opportunities. The hope is that the Texas OER Playbook will serve as a companion on the journey towards OER awareness and advocacy at your institution.

This book represents a starting point towards curating and centering marginal voices and non-dominant epistemic stances in open education. It includes the work of 43 diverse authors whose perspectives challenge the dominant hegemony.

Openly published book
Title: Self-directed multimodal learning in higher education
Editor: Jako Olivier
Publisher: AOSIS, Cape Town, South Africa
ISBN: 978-1-928523-42-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2020.BK210
Date of publication: 2020

This book aims to provide an overview of theoretical and practical considerations in terms of self-directed multimodal learning within the university context. Multimodal learning is approached in terms of the levels of multimodality and specifically blended learning and the mixing of modes of delivery (contact and distance education). As such, this publication will provide a unique snapshot of multimodal practices within higher education through a self-directed learning epistemological lens. The book covers issues such as what self-directed multimodal learning entails, mapping of specific publications regarding blended learning, blended learning in mathematics, geography, natural science and computer literacy, comparative experiences in distance education as well as situated and culturally appropriate learning in multimodal contexts.
This book provides a unique focus on multimodality in terms of learning and delivery within the context of self-directed learning. Therefore, the publication would not only advance the scholarship of blended and open distance learning in South Africa, but also the contribute to enriching the discourse regarding self-direction. From this book readers will get an impression of the latest trends in literature in terms of multimodal self-directed learning in South Africa as well as unique empirical work being done in this regard.