Scholarly Communication Librarian Sarah Hare and Neuro-Health Sciences Librarian Amy Minix will discuss how functional and subject librarians, along with other campus partners, joined together to implement the Course Material Transformation Fellowship Program. This presentation will cover how the CMFP was formed, discuss training and opportunities for the Fellows to support their OER endeavors, and share next steps as we look ahead to the next iteration of the program.
The session will be especially useful for attendees interested in forming partnerships across multiple campuses, those seeking local grant funding to support the creation of a new program, and anyone interested in the logistical and strategic decisions inherent in implementing an instructor stipend program. The session will facilitate discussion about promoting a new program, evaluating applicants, balancing the needs of partners/ campuses, assessment, and implementation.
As course reserves became unavailable and students were unable to share textbooks, the COVID-19 pandemic made the need for accessible, digital course materials more important than ever. We recognized the need for a systematic approach to compensating and sustainably supporting instructors in their endeavor to find, adopt, and customize affordable course materials that are accessible to all students.
As a result, IU Bloomington and IUPUI Libraries partnered to create a Course Material Fellowship Program (CMFP) in 2020. The goals of the Course Material Fellowship Program are to help all students afford college regardless of their economic status, to facilitate and inspire the development of alternatives to high-cost textbooks, and to centralize support for instructors working with affordable course material solutions. In order to compensate them for their time and ensure success, fellows are provided with a $2,000 stipend, the expertise of librarians and instructional technologists, and the opportunity to learn alongside their peers. The pilot year of the Course Material Transformation Fellowship Program is estimated to impact over 5,000 students and save them over $185,000 across the two campuses.
The fellowship takes a multi-pronged and holistic approach to course transformation by blurring adoption, adaptation, and creation and allowing fellows to utilize OER, library-licensed eBooks, and/or instructor-created materials. In practice, instructors do not just adopt a new resource; instead, they often need to make changes and create supplementary material. The IU CMFP recognizes how varied instructor needs are and centralizes support for all of these solutions.
After participating in this session, attendees will be able to:
- Articulate the benefits of creating an implementation group or involving several campus partners
- Name the benefits that subject librarians bring to affordable course material initiatives
- Consider the pros/ cons of embracing multiple course material solutions (as opposed to only OER)
- Outline strategies for creating and implementing a similar program on your campus
