4 Start Here: 12 Proven Strategies for Marketing OERs

by: Karen Rege, Director for eLearning and Instructional Resources, Harford Community College, MD. Resources Revised by Justin Kani. The original can be found in the references. 

According to recent research,* the primary impediment to adoption of OERs is not enough knowledge about them. Marketing is therefore critical to the success of any OER initiative. Marketing OERs to your campus community can be challenging, but below are 12 strategies in no particular order that have worked successfully on other college campuses. To help implement the some the strategies you will want to create a marketing campaign.

1.     Create a strategic plan or formal adoption policy. Lumen Learning has an excellent OER Policy Development Tool.  The The act of getting a plan vetted through the faculty governing body will raise awareness. An example is BCcampus.
2.      Get buy-in from top level administration. Faculty will be more likely to join the initiative if they know it is supported by the President, Provost, and most importantly, their deans. Look for opportunities to serve on student success initiatives and publish articles about the cost of textbooks.  An example of this is a published article about OER and the cost of textbooks at IUPUI. ASSIST is a resource created to help faculty learn about ways to help their students financially. Make sure that all articles, social media, emails have links for additional resources. This can be a link to your library guide or a form to sign up for an OER newsletter.
3.     Get buy-in from students. Student government and the student newspaper are great ways to get the word out to students about your initiative. Here are two newspaper examples: Indiana University South Bend, Lehigh University, and  Although after a few successful piloted courses, the students will generate their own buzz about which courses use OERs. Two examples of student government participating in OER awards include University of Tennessee  and Texas A&M OER Awards. Here is an example of University of Pittsburgh’s Student Government Board OER resolution. 
4.     Create a survey of faculty projects. Not only will it give you data to work with, it will also raise awareness among faculty. Internally publish the results. An example of this is IUPUI’s OER Award which was used as an environmental scan: 27197-Article Text-65041-1-10-20190429 (3)  
5.     Money talks. Create a spreadsheet to document savings to students and publish the results in campus publications and communications. Open-Textbook_OER-Adoption-Tracker created by Lansing Community College in Lansing, Michigan.
6.     Work with the Public Relations department to brand the initiative. Logos, swag and other materials will catch the eyes of faculty. PR may also be able to give you marketing ideas that you might not have thought of. Instead of creating own designs see what is out on the web. An example of this is by Victoria Koldewyn at Lansing Community College. On Google images, you can search and filter by creative commons license. Though this isn’t always accurate, it will allow you to find works that then can be verified for reuse etc.
7.     Get the Board of Trustees involved. While most of us don’t have much communication with the Board, they can be strong allies who generally want to be able to talk about all the great work your institution is doing to save money for students on textbooks.  They really do care, so don’t forget about them. Look for reports or opportunities to study  the affordability of attending your college. If there is a university survey that is sent out to students advocate for questions about textbook affordability included. An example of this report can be found at IUPUI. Reports on affordability can help position OERs as a strategic issue in the area of retention and student success.
8.     Fund faculty projects. Whether it’s cash or technology, faculty will be more likely to put in the work to create OERs if they are rewarded, at least at the start-up of your initiative. One an example of this comes from Indiana University South Bend.
9.     Engage librarians and instructional designers in the curation and adaptation of OER to support faculty adoptions.  They work with lots of faculty and can help spread the word.
10.  Partner with the center for teaching/faculty development to offer workshops on OER adoptions or hold teaching circles for faculty to share their experiences
11.  Create an online presence with a website or a library guide. Connect it to everywhere possible on campus.
12.  Present, present, present! Present at committee meetings, department faculty meetings, general faculty meetings and institutes, faculty professional development events, administrative meetings, student groups, and to anyone else who will listen.

* Belikov, O.M, & Bodily, R. (2016). Incentives and barriers to OER adoption: a qualitative analysis of faculty perceptions. Open Praxis, 8(3), 235–246. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.8.3.308

Bradley, P. (2013, May 13). Opening the textbook: open educational resources movement gathers momentum. Community College Week, 6-8. Print.

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