OER at UTA: Lessons & Directions

The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) has published 26 open education resources (OER) to date and that number is still growing. UTA’s dedicated OER department provides financial support to faculty creating, adopting, and developing OER; educates faculty and students on the value of OER; and maintains a robust publishing infrastructure for open educational resources. Beginning in 2017 with one full-time staff member, UTA’s OER service has grown from an idea to a dedicated department with first-in-class resources. This presentation will examine the voyage of OER support at UTA. Using quantitative data like budgetary and publishing metrics as well as qualitative data from interviews and internal documents, we will describe the steps and missteps of UTA’s program. The lessons learned from our investigation can help libraries looking to start or grow their own programs.