Faculty-librarian collaboration: A pilot project for using OER-based courses at Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane

In this session, we will share with AMICAL colleagues the results of a faculty-librarian collaboration project that was conducted at Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane (Morocco) using Open Educational Resources (OER) for one of my courses (Introduction to Islamic Art & Architecture).

The session will address the following questions: 1) what triggered the shift from using conventional print resources to using OER? In the case of my course, the course textbooks went out of print and, when alternative textbooks became available, they were just too expensive; this is to link to the more general debate about the financial burden incurred by parents and students alike due to the rising textbook prices at most international liberal arts institutions; 2) how did each of the project’s partners contribute to this collaboration considering their respective areas of expertise (disciplinary faculty vs. digital educational resources expert)? 3) which platform to choose for making the OER-based course material easily accessible to students? In this project, we opted for LibGuides (https://springshare.com/libguides/).

We will conclude the session with an assessment of the effectiveness and merit of this pilot project using a) statistical data showing the number of students’ visits (website traffic) to the course online platform over the last 3 years (August 2016-August 2019), and b) survey data (to be conducted in Fall 2019). The session’s ultimate goal is to trigger constructive debate, among fellow faculty and librarians, on innovative and effective use of digital tools and resources to improve the learning experience of students at AMICAL institutions.