Are you passionate about the use of OER and interested in engaging others in adopting OER by sharing your experiences – both what has worked and what hasn’t? Have you created new open content within your field or discipline? Do you have OER content adoption strategies to share? Have you seen significant savings with respect to student course costs? Has the use of OER led to broader redesigns of courses? Greater student engagement or student learning?

We are inviting faculty from Maryland higher education institutions to showcase and present their OER stories at the Advancing Postsecondary Student Success Through OER summit, co-sponsored by the University System of Maryland's (USM) William E. Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation, MarylandOnline, and University of Maryland University College (UMUC).  Taking place on December 8, 2017, this one-day summit will explore the promise of using open educational resources (OER) to replace costly textbooks with affordable, high-quality learning materials while giving instructors the opportunity to repurpose content to meet their students’ needs. There will be two options for faculty to present their work: 1) a poster showcase during breakfast and 2) a poster showcase during breakfast + a presentation in the afternoon.  Come present your work to colleagues across Maryland who are looking to adopt and scale OER at their institutions.

Who Can Submit a Proposal?
We invite proposals from individual faculty or teams of 2 - 3. Proposals can come from within a single Maryland institution or across multiple Maryland institutions. We strongly encourage the meaningful involvement of students who have experienced OER in their courses as well. Team members may also include librarians, instructional designers, and others instrumental to the design or implementation of OER.

Formats for Poster Showcase Only and Poster Showcase + Presentation
The Summit will kick off with a poster showcase from 8:00 to 8:45 a.m.  Individual presenters and at least one presenter from each team must arrive at the Summit registration desk with poster in hand by 7:45 a.m. in order to set up. For applicants who choose the poster showcase + presentation option, there will be concurrent sessions in the afternoon featuring very short “TED Talk” type presentations that elaborate upon the poster content.

If your proposal is accepted, you and/or your team will be required to do the following:

• Poster Showcase Only - Individuals and/or teams will develop a poster sharing their OER story using a template provided by the Kirwan Center.  The focus will be on highlighting the experience of adopting, adapting or scaling OER and the impact OER has had on faculty, courses, and students. Accepted individual presenters and team representatives must be in attendance during the poster showcase from 8:00 to 8:45 a.m. to discuss their posters with attendees.  Posters will remain up for viewing for the rest of the Summit.
• Poster Showcase + Presentation - Individuals and/or teams will develop a poster sharing their OER story using a template provided by the Kirwan Center.  The focus will be on highlighting the experience of adopting, adapting or scaling OER and the impact OER has had on faculty, courses, and students.  Accepted individual presenters and team representatives must be in attendance during the poster showcase from 8:00 to 8:45 a.m. to discuss their posters with attendees.  Posters will remain up for viewing for the rest of the Summit. Presentations will take place in the afternoon, with individuals and/or teams highlighting their OER experiences, strategies, successes, and challenges using a rapid presentation format with a limited number of slides. This fast-paced format will help keep attendees focused on the main takeaways of presenters’ OER work.  Presentations will be clustered by themes and topics when possible, and each session will include a Q&A period.  More details about the presentation format will accompany acceptance letters, and slides must be submitted to the conference organizers no later than Wednesday, November 29, 2017.

Presentations should focus on a particular angle of your OER story.  Some ideas for presentation topics and angles include:

• The OER adoption, adaption, and creation process
• Scaling OER across a department and/or institution
• Engaging students in OER creation and customization
• Using Creative Commons licensing
• Faculty and/or student experience using openly licensed materials (textbooks, videos, PowerPoints, quizzes, etc.)
• Student impact (cost savings, engagement, outcomes, retention, persistence, etc.)
• Motivation to convert course content entirely to OER
• Impact on pedagogy and course design

Proposal Submission Timeline

• Proposals must be submitted by 5 p.m. on November 3, 2017.
• Applicants will be notified about acceptance by November 7, 2017.
• Final PowerPoint slides will be due on November 29, 2017.

Deadlines and Notifications
Proposals must be submitted by 5 p.m. on Friday, November 3, 2017 at https://goo.gl/forms/LvDfr6U0HAQQPOz43.  Applicants will be notified about acceptance by November 7, 2017.

For More Information
Want more details or have questions?  Contact Fiona Yung at cai@usmd.edu.