This seminar takes place over one day looking at how resources are being developed and promoted, and how others have approached the creation and management of OER policies. We welcome speakers from the UK and USA to this session.
When
Where
Wednesday, May 7, 2025 – 10:00 BST
to 16:30 BST
Online
United Kingdom
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About the Event
Registration
Registration is now open, please click here to register
UKSG membership rate: £70+VAT
Non-membership rate: £82.00+VAT
Details of membership can be found at https://www.uksg.org/join
Course Information
The next few years will see a continual increase in the amount of materials created by educational and aligned organisations, much of which will be accessible to peers, students and the general population across the globe. The opportunities for sharing Open Education Resources are greater than ever. This widespread change has led to many ethical and practical questions around ownership, hosting and copyright. This seminar explores the current OER landscape, looks at how some of these issues are being addressed, and highlights the opportunities presented by the growth of OER resources.
Why should you attend?
Delegates will have a chance to hear from a variety of different perspectives, which will include how open resources can support teaching and learning, how resources are being developed and promoted, and how others have approached the creation and management of OER policies. This course is aimed at anyone who is keen to understand more about Open Educational Resources, with a view to creating them, making use of them for teaching and learning, or creating policies around them.
DO NOTE: We welcome participants from all corners of the globe to join our seminars, however speakers and topics for this event are generally UK focused and times are in BST, if you have any doubt about the suitability, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Who should you attend?
The seminar will be of interest to those working across the scholarly information industry, including publishers, librarians, teachers, lecturers, learning technologists, research support staff, other aligned professionals and students.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the course participants will:
- Gain a wide overview of the current OER environment across the UK and US
- Learn about the opportunities and challenges of implementing an OER policy at an organisational and national level
- Discover benefits and opportunities of engaging with the creation of OER content
Attendee Information
The webinar tool we use is Go to Webinar. To test your system ahead of time visit https://support.goto.com/webinar/system-check-attendee
Recording
The sessions will be recorded and available to all registered delegates after the event, so if you unable to join us live or want to review any presentation this will be available.
Accessibility
UKSG wants to provide the best possible experience for all our delegates, making presentations as accessible and inclusive as possible. Our intention where possible is to strongly encourage our speakers to provide auto generated closed captioning for both live and recorded events as well as to make sure their slides as easy as possible for all people to read. In addition, we can provide auto generated transcripts post event for each of the recorded sessions.
If you have particular accessibility needs or questions about this seminar, we welcome you to contact us directly at events@uksg.org prior to booking your place.
Programme
- Morning session
- Afternoon session
Time
Programme
Speakers
10:00
Welcome and Introduction
Note: All times BST
Klara Finnimore
Royal College of Art (RCA)
See Biography
Klara is the Journals and E-Resources Librarian at the Royal College of Art. She has responsibility for managing and developing the RCA’s online collection of journals and databases, as well as maintaining the current and archived print journal collections. She also contributes to the work of a number of committees across the library sector.
Ai Gooch
University of Essex
See Biography
Ai is the Assistant Director (University Collections and Digital Services) at the University of Essex. She oversees the University Collections including University’s Special Collections, Archives, and Art Collections, while also leading the development of digital infrastructure and services. She previously worked as the Academic Liaison Librarian (Business and Law) at the University of Essex. Her contributions include initiatives such as Decolonising the Library, Skills @ Essex, and the Race Equality Charter.
10.05
Session 1: The Death of the Textbook
As an educational tool, the commercial textbook in its traditional form is obsolete and yet the sector remains wedded to an outdated paradigm that serves neither the needs of the student or the academy. What are the alternatives? We present the results of a pilot programme at Coventry University where the commercial textbook has been discarded in favour of a shift to Open Content. Is this the beginning of a (re)new(ed) paradigm or a Canutian exercise in futility?
Phil Brabban
Phil Brabban
Coventry University
See Biography
Having initially trained and worked as a Secondary School English and Drama teacher, Phil swiftly made the decision to alter course, changing career to follow a life of excitement and high adventure in Librarianship. He began his career at Durham University in 1999 where he worked for several years, most significantly as an ‘accidental’ Systems Librarian. Phil has worked at the University Library at Coventry since 2007 in a number of leadership roles and was appointed University Librarian in 2014. Now, as Chief Librarian, he carries responsibility for the operational and strategic direction of the service across the entire University Group. Phil has been a member of SCONUL’s Executive Board since 2022 and is co-Chair of the SCONUL Content Strategy group.
Dal Badesha
Coventry University
See Biography
Dal is the Head of Learning Resources and Student Experience at Coventry University, focusing on Open Educational Resources. With a career in academic libraries spanning nearly three decades, Dal began as a library assistant in 1996 and has since held various roles, including Project Manager for one of Europe’s largest textbook schemes. Passionate about accessible learning, she is dedicated to enhancing student experiences through innovative resource strategies.
10.40
Session 2: Taking a strategic approach
to embedding the institutional use of OERs
In 2022 the University of Sheffield approved an OER policy, supporting the re-use, re-purposing and adaptation of existing OER, and the creation of new OERs. To implement the policy, a proactive approach was taken, with the formation of a cross-faculty OER Working Group. This group was tasked with promoting policy awareness, fostering an OER community, identifying guidance and support for staff and making recommendations in support of the policy. In this talk we will review the steps taken so far to move to a position where the use of OER is embedded as standard practice at Sheffield.
Louise Robson
University of Sheffield
See Biography
Louise Robson is a Professor of Digital Innovation in Learning and Teaching at the University of Sheffield, with over 30 years experience in teaching. A PFHEA and an NTF, she is known for her work around using digital technologies to enhance the student learning experience, e.g. lecture capture and active learning. She is also a strong advocate for the use of inclusive approaches in student learning. As the chair of the University of Sheffield OER Working Group, she leads the group to deliver the actions needed to embed the use of OERs into learning and teaching activities at the university.
11.05
Session 3: Reflections on building a European Open Education Network: Community as a keystone to consolidate Open Educational Practice in the educational space
This presentation reflects on the experiences of building a European Open Education Network through the ENCORE+ project. ENCORE+ has built a community of more than 500 active members since 2020. We have done this by researching, having constant dialogue with relevant stakeholders, and collecting and sharing good practice examples, strategies and innovation on key topics such as Policies & Practice, Innovation & business models, Quality and Technology. We have developed, co-created and shared our knowledge with our network in a community of practice through a series of reports, network events, focus groups, workshops and contributions to conferences
Orna Farrell
Dublin City University (DCU)
See Biography
| Dr Orna Farrell is Associate Professor of Education, specialising in digital education based in the School of Policy Practice, Institute of Education in Dublin City University (DCU). Orna holds a PhD in Education from Trinity College Dublin. Orna is programme chair of the B.Sc. in Education and Training. Orna’s research interests centre around digital innovative pedagogy and include online pedagogy, learning design, digital assessment, eportfolio and open education. She has a growing publication record in her fields of interest, including a range of book chapters, journal articles, invited presentations and conference papers. She has published in high-ranking journals such as Distance Education, the Journal of Interactive Media in Education, Research in Learning Technology, and the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education. Orna is a fellow of EDEN Digital Learning Europe. |
11.30
Break
11.40
Session 4: Open for Good: Strategic support for OER at the University of Edinburgh
At the University of Edinburgh we believe that OER and open education are strongly in keeping with our institutional vision; to discover knowledge and make the world a better place. During this session we’ll be exploring how Edinburgh has embedded strategic support for OER across the institution, through the implementation of a permissive OER Policy, supported by a range of central services. We’ll introduce case studies, highlight the importance of developing copyright literacy skills, touch on our commitment to student engagement and co-creation, and provide recommendations that other institutions can follow to enable them to adapt and adopt this model.
Charlie Farley
University of Edinburgh
See Biography
Stephanie (Charlie) Farley has worked in Higher Education Libraries and Learning Technology services for fifteen years, and has spent the last decade embedding strategic support in policy and technologies, training, supporting, and collaborating with staff and students in the creation and use of Open Education Resources at The University of Edinburgh. [View the OEGlobal award winning collection of student made OERs on our TES repository: University of Edinburgh’s Open.Ed Open Educational Resources on TES.]
12.05
Session 5: Building it Together: Developing an Open Textbook community of practice in the UK
The Open Education Network (OEN) is a mature community of practice in the US, which has over 1,800 member institutions and is committed to making open the default in higher education. Brunel University of London Library joined the OEN in 2023 and has been collaborating with library colleagues across the UK to convert the OEN model to a UK environment. This talk will report on the academic engagement and adoption strategies applied at Brunel and the formation of a new UK community, in which librarians across the UK and Ireland are given peer support to develop their open practice
David Beales
Brunel University of London
See Biography
David Beales is the University Librarian at Brunel University of London. David has a range of experience in US and UK higher education, research and parliamentary library environments and most recently worked at the House of Commons Library as the Head of Research Information. David’s areas of expertise include Open Education Resources, collection evaluation and Big Deal modelling.
12.30
Lunch Break
Time
Programme
Speakers
13.30
Welcome back
Tim Leonard
Lancaster University
See Biography
| Tim Leonard is Associate Director: Space, Experience and Innovation at Lancaster University Library. He oversees the development of the Library’s learning spaces, its frontline services team and digital systems. Tim has worked in academic libraries for over 20 years and has held positions at Lancaster, the University of Bolton, Manchester Metropolitan University and Cardiff University. He is a member of UKSG’s Education and Events Subcommittee and represents Lancaster in a range of groups with RLUK and Academic Libraries North. His professional interests include learning space design, environmental sustainability and innovative technologies in libraries. |
Andy Tattersall
University of Sheffield
See Biography
| Andy Tattersall is an Information Specialist at the Division of Population Health at The University of Sheffield. Andy writes, teaches and delivers talks and training about research communications (including podcasting, blogging, social media, video/animation, infographics), digital academia, open research, web and information science and altmetrics. In particular, their application for research, teaching, learning, knowledge exchange and collaboration. Andy received a Senate Award from The University of Sheffield for his pioneering work on Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) in 2013 and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Andy was named in Jisc’s Top 10 Social Media Superstars. He was a member of the Cilip Digital Technology Committee (MmIT) for 10 years (2 as Chair) and is a member of the UKSG Events and Education Committee. Andy co-wrote and edited a book on Altmetrics for Facet Publishing which is aimed at researchers and librarians. https://linktr.ee/andy_tattersall |
13.35
Session 6: Games as OERs: putting the fun in fundamental discussions
In this session we will discuss our process towards game creation for educational purposes, and the challenges and advantages games as Open Educational Resources (OERs) create. We will also explore the value of using gamification while developing OERs and walk the audience through the resources we have created, how they are used and where they can be found
Katrine Sundsbø
DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)
See Biography
Katrine is a Community Manager at DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals). She has worked in open access and scholarly communications for over eight years, and have frequently used gamification in workshops and events to engage others with important topics related to open research. Katrine is the creator of the Open Access Escape Room, Open Access Mystery and co-creator of Copyright Dough (with Hannah Crago) and Open Science in Peril, Open Educational Resources Escape Room and ‘What about Open Science’ (with Aisling Coyne and Dr. Sarah Coombs). All games are of course created as Open Educational Resources.
Aisling Coyne
Technological University Dublin
See Biography
Aisling Coyne is the Open Scholarship Librarian for Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) where she manages the institutional repository, Arrow, and the Diamond journals published through it; engages in outreach and promotion of Open Scholarship; delivers training to academics, staff, students, and researchers on a variety of Open topics; among other things.
Aisling is a member of two Library Association of Ireland special interest groups (Library Publishing and Open Scholarship); Irish Open Access Publishers; National Open Research Forum project SCOIR; is a founding member and co-chair of OSCAIL, among other groups.
Aisling has a very special interest in OER, Games and Gamification, creating Open Scholarship games with Sarah Coombs and Katrine Sundsbø since 2022.
Sarah Coombs
Digital Competency Centre for Practice-Oriented Research/ Saxion University of Applied Sciences
See Biography
Sarah Coombs is Content Coordinator for the Digital Competency Centre for Practice Oriented Research (DCC-PO), and the Open Science Advisor for Saxion University of Applied Sciences and for the Netherlands Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (NAUAS). She has completed PhD with the Centre for Science and Technology at the Leiden University looking at how the impact of UAS research can be evaluated. She enjoys being creative in all kinds of ways including thinking of new ways to present Open Science and research support with Aisling Coyne and Katrine Sundsbø
14.00
Session 7: Making OA textbooks a reality
Rupert Gatti
Open Book Publishers
See Biography
Rupert Gatti is a Fellow in Economics at Trinity College, Cambridge and co-founder of Open Book Publishers – a non-profit open access scholarly book publisher. He is also a Steward (Trustee) of the Open Book Collective – a charity facilitating collective library funding for “Diamond” open access books – and an active participant within the Copim community developing open infrastructures to support OA book publishing.
14.25
Session 8: Open Education as Action
Open education is a good idea – there are very few people who think otherwise. But if we want our instructors to act differently – to engage in open educational practices that benefit our students – then we need to go beyond advocating for the idea of open education. We need concrete actions that will empower, engage, and support our instructors to change their practices. Dr. David Ernst discusses how the Open Education Network community helps its members take action to advance open education.
David Ernst
Open Education Network
See Biography
David Ernst is the Chief Information Officer and graduate faculty member at the College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota. He is the director of the Center for Open Education and holds a PhD in Learning Technologies. David is the Executive Director of the Open Education Network, a community of open education professionals representing over 1,800 higher education institutions. He also has experience and passion for intercultural understanding, faculty development, and the improvement of educational practices
14.50
Break
15.00
Session 9: Opening Learning For All: MERLOT’s & SkillsCommons’ Open Educational Resources, Practices, and Services.
With access to the internet, academic education and workforce development can be open to all whose learning opportunities have been limited by economics, cultures, politics, and more. Free and open educational resources are not sufficient to transform educational opportunities for learners, teachers and institutions. Open educational practices and services are essential to empower and accelerate educational opportunities. The presentation will highlight MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) and SkillsCommons free and open libraries of resources, practices, and services, with examples of individual, disciplinary, and institutional initiatives to provide affordable learning solutions for all.
Gerry Hanley
MERLOT & SKillsCommons
See Biography
Gerry Hanley Ph.D. is the Executive Director of MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching, www.merlot.org) and SkillsCommons (www.skillscommons.org). At California State University Long Beach, Gerry is the Director of the Center for Usability in Design and Accessibility and Professor Emeritus of Psychology. Gerry’s previous positions included Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Technology Services at the California State University Chancellor’s Office, Director of Strategic Planning and Director of the Center for Faculty Development at CSULB. He received his BA, MA, and PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in Experimental/Cognitive Psychology.
15.25
Session 10 : Beyond Affordability: The Value that Open Educational Practice (and Resources!) Can Bring to your Faculty and Learners
OER is understood as a no-cost option for student that increases access at the start of the term. More than that, OER can provide a foundation for developing curriculum that can is adapted to learner contexts, to regional contexts, and that will resonate with students at a deeper level. This session will explore ways that OER can be leveraged to improve teaching and learning beyond affordability.
Mindy Newfarmer
Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME)
See Biography
Melinda Newfarmer brings over 25 years of experience in educational technology, product development, and editorial management to ISKME and OER Commons. At ISKME, Melinda runs the services group, which includes platform and tools development, professional learning in open education, and library services. Each team in the services group strives to further ISKME’s purpose of building participatory, equitable access to education. Prior to joining ISKME in 2014, Melinda worked at Stanford Libraries developing an eBook platform for scholarly communications and Cengage Learning in editorial and product management for higher education.
15.50
Panal Session
16.25
Closing remarks and wrap up
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