Call for Participation: Open Educational Resources (OER) Community of Practice
The Open Educational Resources Community of Practice seeks to bring together Duke instructors who are interested in making their courses more accessible and affordable for undergraduate students by using openly available, low- or no-cost teaching materials called Open Educational Resources (OER). The OER Community of Practice will be led by Duke Libraries staff, with support from Learning Innovation and Lifetime Education and the Office of Undergraduate Education.
What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?
Learning materials ranging from textbooks, problem sets, lecture slides, syllabi and lesson plans, videos, assignments, tests, and whole courses created by peer instructors and shared openly for others to modify and reuse in their own teaching. OER are published under open licenses that describe how materials may be used, reused, and adapted in your own courses.
Why use OER in your classroom?
- OER reduce hidden costs of college – Course materials costs are not included in tuition, and students who struggle to afford the tools essential to learning in their classes may be less likely to succeed.
- OER improve student success – Lowering or removing the cost barrier to taking a course can positively affect your students and their learning. When students don’t have to choose between living expenses and their textbooks, they are more likely to have better academic outcomes.
- OER invites innovative pedagogy – Stepping away from a “traditional” textbook can present an exciting opportunity for an instructor to try new modalities for teaching and engaging students in the classroom.
Program Description
The OER Community of Practice will contextualize the foundations of the OER movement for student success and course affordability through interactive sessions with your peer instructors and Duke librarians. You will discover portals for finding OER created by other instructors and best practices for reviewing and adopting those materials for your own classroom. We’ll discuss what it means to license OER openly through the Creative Commons and how you can incorporate OER in your classroom and even create and share it back for others to reuse.
Being a part of the OER Community of Practice is an invitation to reflect on your syllabus and use the collaborative work sessions to find, adapt, and adopt one or more OER material(s) for a course taught during the Spring 2026 or Fall 2026 semesters. One item on your syllabus must be “flipped” completely to OER, but the community welcomes more ambitious changes as well, as we cultivate a space during the program to explore open educational practice.
No prior experience with or use of OER is required to participate in the community, and having a group with varied levels of experience can lead to exciting conversations.
Program Events & Timeline
The OER Community of Practice will run from September to December 2025. Important events include:
- A kickoff meeting on Friday, September 26, 2025 (in-person, 2-3 hours including lunch)
- Three 90-minute learning and working meetings (hybrid, in-person preferred) over the course of the Fall 2025 semester
- A closing meeting to reflect on what you’ve learned and how you will move forward with OER in your course on Tuesday, December 9, 2025 (in-person, 1-2 hours)
- A meeting in Spring 2026 (date TBD, 2 hours) to report out on how you have used or plan to use OER in your classroom
Participant Expectations
Participants in this program will be expected to attend and participate meaningfully in all activities listed in the ‘Program Events & Timeline’ section. Additionally, the group, in consultation with the Duke University Libraries, will:
- Reimagine and “flip” to OER at least one meaningful element of your syllabus for a course to be taught in Spring or Fall 2026.
- Compose and submit a reflection statement about the transition to OER to be shared publicly online (i.e., blog post).
- Present to your peers in the community your syllabus changes and reflections at the final meeting in Spring 2026.
Eligibility
We are looking for instructors of any rank, from any discipline, who are interested in using OER in their classroom. No prior experience with OER is required to participate; the community will be a space for learning, led by librarians. Express your interest and any experience with OER in the application form by Monday, August 18, 2025. Participants meeting the program expectations will receive a stipend of $1,000 as a transfer to their professional development accounts or as supplementary pay by the end of the Spring 2026 semester.
If you have any questions about the OER Community of Practice, the application process, or participant expectations, please email open-access@duke.edu.