Working Session on Open Educational Resources

Shaping the Role of Open Educational Resources at Liberal Arts Colleges

Convened by

Bryon Grigsby, Senior Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Shenandoah University

Open educational resources promise to transform how instructors convey knowledge and how students interact with content, but liberal arts colleges face crucial—and as yet murky—choices in determining how to integrate them into the curriculum. With the ongoing shift toward digital publication and concern about the high costs of textbooks, colleges are being challenged to replace expensive course textbooks with open educational resources (OER). In addition to helping colleges lower costs, OER can increase flexibility, build in interactivity, facilitate greater sharing and transparency, and ultimately improve learning. For example, Bryn Mawr is experimenting with incorporating adaptive, assessment-driven modules developed by Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative into science and math classes as part of its Next Generation Learning Challenge grant. However, it is not yet clear if enough OER are available to support the liberal arts curriculum or what impact these new resources have on learning.

Drawing on ongoing research into OER conducted by NITLE Labs and NITLE’s senior fellow and other staff, this session will focus on how liberal arts campuses can best engage with these new learning resources. We expect the session to generate the following outcomes: generate initial suggestions for best practices in integrating OER into the liberal arts curriculum; provide recommendations on the use and production of OER for the liberal arts community; and provide a report of the sessions, including discussion summary, resources identified, and key points.

Key Questions

• What is the significance of openness as an approach to education at liberal arts colleges?
• Which disciplines are best suited to utilize open educational resources?
• Where do liberal arts colleges best fall on the production-consumption continuum?  
• What different logics underpin OER adoption by students and faculty?
• What are the economic benefits to small campuses of open educational resources?
• What beneficial collaborative opportunities are there for small colleges in advancing OER?

About the Session Convener

Bryon Lee Grigsby is the Senior Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Shenandoah University. Prior to this position, Dr. Grigsby held administrative roles as Provost and Chief Operating Officer, Vice President, and Dean at Centenary College in New Jersey. He is the coeditor of Misconceptions of the Middle Ages (with Stephen Harris, Routledge, 2007), author of Pestilence in Medieval and Early Modern English Literature (Routledge, 2004), and has published articles in Shakespeare Magazine, The Writing Lab Newsletter, the Modern Language Association’s Teaching Medicine and Literature, The Connecticut Review, and Essays in Medieval Studies.

Dr. Grigsby holds a Ph.D. from Loyola University Chicago. In 2004, he completed Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management and Villanova University’s Graduate Certificate Program in Project Management. He is the 2012-13 board chair and was the 2011 campaign chairman of the United Way of the Northern Shenandoah Valley. He also serves on the boards of the Old Town Winchester Development, Shenandoah Valley Technology Committee, advisory board of the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE), and the Loudoun Heathcare, Inc. Board of Directors.