From the Desk of: Emily Holland Reflections on the 2022 Open Education Conference 

Atla awarded Emily Holland, Mount St. Mary’s University, a scholarship to attend the 2022 virtual Open Education Conference, October 17-20. Emily shares her takeaways from and reflections on the sessions she attended.

As the Student Success Librarian at Hugh J. Phillips Library, I serve students in Mount St. Mary’s University’s undergraduate, graduate, and seminary programs. With such a broad array of needs at our institution, it is high on my list of concerns that we provide accessible services to all students. Who knew that, from the instructional perspective, our courses could be so expansively designed around these materials at no (or very low cost) to the learner? Prior to my attendance at the 2022 Open Education Conference, not me. 

I am always one to suggest working “smarter, not harder,” and I see our ability to develop open educational resources as a smarter, not harder, way to meet the needs of our students. Part of my work includes overseeing our interlibrary loan program, so I see firsthand the ramifications of access issues and the stresses which present when course-mandated materials are cost-prohibitive, especially when they are also unavailable via course reserve. Regarding our theology courses in particular, I can think of a number of required texts which are markedly costly. Considering some of these texts were published by members of our instructional faculty, I now find myself wondering in what overt or covert ways our students’ educational experience would differ if these materials had been published openly.  

I am always one to suggest working “smarter, not harder,” and I see our ability to develop open educational resources as a smarter, not harder, way to meet the needs of our students.

As an additional point of equity, I have been heartened to see the expansive nature of open educational resources. These extend far beyond the realm of open access scholarly publications with which I had previously been familiar. My greatest surprise takeaway of the conference was discovering the great degree of student involvement in educational materials (word banks, assessments, activities, and more!) being developed openly. I am embarrassed to admit that it had not previously occurred to me that an excellent and organic opportunity for diverse and inclusive representation in our educational materials could result from incorporating students in the material creation and curation process. As a librarian first and foremost, I also wonder how we can strategically use this student involvement in creation and curation of materials to help prepare our students to effectively grow from budding scholars to the researchers whose work we will one day supply to our students.  

I am embarrassed to admit that it had not previously occurred to me that an excellent and organic opportunity for diverse and inclusive representation in our educational materials could result from incorporating students in the material creation and curation process.

I am highly grateful to Atla for providing me the opportunity to attend this conference on scholarship. I would not have been in the position to attend otherwise. One of our instructional designers was also able to attend, and we look forward to continuing to explore the ways in which our institution can support adoption of OER use by faculty as a team. While our instructional designers can help integrate OERs into our learning management system and teach faculty to use products through which materials can be edited and/or created, I will be able to evaluate quality options for faculty selection. Earlier this week, I was asked by one of our deans to investigate an OER option for one of our large introductory courses, and I am prepared to complete this missive thanks to the professional development I received by attending the Open Education Conference. Thank you, Atla! 

Are you interested in future professional development opportunities? Keep an eye on the Atla blog for announcements about free webinars, conference grants, and other professional development.