Friday, March 28 2025

9:00 am - 2:00 pm 

Location: 808 Chapman Hall, Connecticut State Community College Middlesex, 100 Training Hill Rd, Middletown, CT 06457 (park on the campus's Lower Parking Lot)

Agenda

9:00-9:30 - Registration & Light Breakfast

9:30-10:00 - Welcome

10:00-11:00 - Keynote: "Creating an OER Action Framework for Student Success in Massachusetts"

• Presenter:Dr. Robert J. Awkward, Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness for the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education 

• Summary: In this keynote presentation, Dr. Awkward will discuss how Massachusetts has developed an action framework that is a ground-up approach to the development of an open educational resources (OER) statewide initiative for its public higher education system. This framework has enabled the development of a sustainable initiative that is anchored by our 28 undergraduate-serving institutions while simultaneously influencing the development of statewide OER policy. The results have increased the utilization of no (including OER) and low-cost textbooks by 33% and has resulted in over $15.6 million in student savings in FY23 with a two-year ROI of $53 savings for every dollar public spent. This OER initiative has become a critical element in our efforts to address and improve student success and completion.

11:00-11:15 - Break

11:15-12:15 - Lightning Rounds

• From Idea to Hyperlink: Creating & Assessing Grant-Funded OER - Olivia Chiang, Professor of Art History at CT State Community College Manchester

• Creating Open Education Resources with Students: A Comparative Review of Two Gender, Sexuality, and Intersectionality Studies Assignments - Ariella Rotramel (they/them/theirs), Vandana Shiva Associate Professor of Gender Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies at Connecticut College; Ashley Hanson (she/her/hers), Research/Instruction Librarian at Connecticut College

• Making Mathematics Meaningful with OER - Aja Shabana, Instructor of Mathematics at CT State Community College Middlesex

• What Might AI Mean for OER? - Rachael Barlow, Director for the Center for Faculty Career Development at Wesleyan University

12:15-1:15 - Lunch

• Each table during the lunch session will be designated with a particular OER-related topic. Just sit at the table that piques your interests and enjoy the informal conversation!

1:15-2:00 - Updates from the CT OER Coordinating Council

• Patrick Carr (Council Chair & Program Manager for CSCU Library Consortium Operations) will discuss the activities of the CT OER Coordinating Council. The session will also feature comments from three CT students: Tyler Fairbanks (Eastern CT State University), Hasham Rauf (CT State Community College Middlesex), and Audrey-Anne Pothier (Eastern CT State University).