This document provides information for students on advocating for open educational resources (OER). It discusses why students get involved in OER advocacy, avenues for involvement like student government and library internships, and examples of student-driven OER victories. It then outlines a statewide student initiative in California to create an OER toolkit for students, covering topics like what OER is and how to create and market OER. The document discusses best practices for creating the student team and toolkit, both benefits and challenges. Finally, it provides guidance for students on bringing OER advocacy to their own campuses by setting goals, identifying stakeholders, and making the case for support.

1. Students and OER
Advocacy
Why, How-to, What, Who, Act ...
Unless otherwise indicated, this presentation is licensed CC-BY 4.0

2. Cailyn Nagle
Affordable Textbooks
Campaign Director
US PIRG
cnagle@pirg.org
@CailynNagle
Jenifer Vang
Student Ambassador
Affordable Learning
$olutions
San Jose State University
jenifer.vang@sjsu.edu
@JeniferVang11
Natalie Miller
OER Student Advocate
2018 Open Education
Consortium Student Award
Cal Poly SLO/
College of the Canyons
natnmiller@gmail.com
@natzattackz

3. Students have been
central since the
beginning of the open
textbook movement!

4. Student Driven Victories
1. Students were part of early
research into open
textbooks
2. Students won open
textbooks policy victories
3. Students have successfully
pushed back on bad deals
From 2004
Over $3 million saved from
program initiated by student
activism in NJ
From pushing back against
access codes to automatic
billing for textbooks, student
leaders are often the loudest
voice advocating for the best
deal on course materials

5. Why do
students
get
involved?

6. Avenues for involvement
1. Student Government: Academic affairs committee, office of the internal vice
president, affordability working groups
2. Student Groups: Student PIRG Chapter on campus, groups working on other
affordability concerns, academic field based advocacy group
3. Library: Internships, volunteer, events

7. The Goal of my OER Path
Goal: How do we get
students more involved and
aware of OER?

8. Taking Open to the next level...
A statewide initiative was proposed to be made across
both CCC and Universities in California.
Result
=
Team of 8 students across
different universities
collaborating for a toolkit

9. What is a toolkit?
A guide created by students for
students; helping to inform and
give suggestions on what Open
Education Resources are and
how to incorporate them onto a
campus.

10. 1
Creating the Toolkit Timeline
2
Creating
the Team
3Thinking of
the Essentials
Our
Experiences

11. When Creating the Team...
● What students are involved in OER?
● How can we communicate?
● What can each student contribute?
● How can each student represent the
community?
● What can we reasonably expect out of
each student?
● How can each person compliment
each other?

12. Thinking of the Essentials...
● What do we want out of this project?
● What is our goal as a team? As a
project?
● What should meetings consist of?
● What are reasonable due dates?
● How else can we benefit those
involved?
● How can we get external individuals
involved?

13. The Pros and Cons of
Our Experiences

14. The Pros
● Understanding how to work with individuals in
different locations
● Practicing editing and curating skills
● The opportunity to have students fully control a
program with advisement
● Getting to work on something bigger than our
Universities and Colleges
● Collaborating on each other's programs
● Having a “Safe Space” for students to open up
about an issue that may be sensitive around
some faculty
● Getting to know other students in OER

15. The Cons
● Time conflict issues
● Different school schedules (semester and
quarter, meaning different testing times)
● Google Docs not being able to handle
formatting
● Having to track down individuals who were
MIA
● Not having a program like this to exist before/
having to model it ourselves

16. What does this mean for you?
It means a chance for students and other
campus members to get involved!
Our toolkit helps all levels to gain
understanding and get started by making
a plan and acting on their campus.

17. Topics the Toolkit Covers
What is OER?
How to create
an OER
How to Market OER
OER Activism
OER FAQs

18. Final Toolkit will be
released by April 2020
For more release information
visit the OER Commons or follow me
@natzattackz

33. Bringing this to your campus
1. What do you want to change?
2. Who has the power to change it?
3. What does that person (or group) need to see in order to make the change?

34. What do you want to change? Set a goal!
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Timely

35. Find your people!
Who is it you need to
convince?
- Department chair
- Vice Chancellor
- Registrar
- Board of Trustees
Who can help you make the
case?
- The library
- Student government
- Students who are impacted
- Faculty using open
- Admin who want to lower
student costs

36. Making your case! AKA what do we actually do?
Will faculty be ok with this?
Is there student support?
Is this even a problem?
Faculty sign on letter of support, faculty
senate resolution, OpEd in school paper
from a faculty member
SGA resolution, #Textbookbroke table
Speak to the decision maker and see what’s holding them back from a yes!
Do a student survey, Hold a student panel,
submit personal story LTEs
Student media covering savings, Panels
with faculty who use open textbooks
But things cost money!
Spread the word about the program, thank
you tables for faculty, help market the
programs
Will the program be
used?

37. If you wait until you have all the time,
people and resources to go ahead, you
may still never get there because you
didn’t fill the interval with the action
needed to get you there. - Fred Ross Sr.

38. Questions?
Reach out!
Cailyn Nagle
cnagle@pirg.org