Using Open Educational Resources (OER) in Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) courses provides students and faculty the opportunity to share content, enhance knowledge, and develop intercultural competence across geopolitical and other boundaries. Faculty perceptions at the research site regarding benefits and challenges of using OER are consistent with positive findings of other OER research that validate its potential. This case study describes experiences of two college courses taught with different international partners. It shares the journey of co-planning, implementing, and revising assignments highlighting OER instructional materials. Technology and accessibility considerations influence the curricular decisions for each course. They demonstrate how the timely availability of relevant OER content can be particularly impactful for international learning environments like COIL. The article underscores the faculty-librarian-instructional designer collaboration throughout the project and offers suggestions for future study.

Using open educational resources (OER) as part of collaborative international exchange learning courses (COIL) provide students and faculty the opportunity to share content, enhance knowledge, and develop intercultural competence across geographical boundaries. The presenters will share their journey of co-planning, implementing, and revising the assignments, highlighting OER instructional materials. The presentation focuses on the faculty-librarian-instructional designer collaboration throughout the project.

Collaborative partnerships between faculty and librarians to support student research is not a new idea; however, the practice of embedding a librarian within a course, department, or curriculum began in the early 2000s as library resources became more accessible in the virtual environment. Embedded librarians help to strengthen students’ engagement both in and outside of the classroom and helps to create a high impact learning opportunities for students. Panelists will describe a few of the many ways in which librarians are embedded here at Brockport: in face-to-face courses, completely online courses, in a department, and in the general education curriculum. Bring examples of partnerships you have held with librarians and questions about new approaches for improving your students’ research practices.

A team of faculty, library, IT, and bookstore staff collaborated on a longitudinal study to track how 50 students use e-textbooks and whether using them improves learning outcomes. The Fall 2010 pilot study, “Tracking Student Interest in e-Textbooks”, gathered both quantitative and qualitative data from students registered in online and physical sections of an upper level business course. Student participants accessed the e-textbook with their personal laptops, but several reported using a Kindle, iPad, and even an iPhone. Of particular interest to the researchers were the possible correlates of students’ successful use of the e-textbooks, e.g., their habits regarding the use of social network sites, electronic commerce, blogs, etc. Another purpose of the study was to discover the impact of assistive interventions offered students throughout the length of the study. These included: (1) e-textbook help sessions from both bookstore and IT staff; (2) e-textbook current event emails from a librarian with a reminder of help contacts, and (3) help consultations by phone, email, or in the Library. At the beginning and end of the study, participants completed pre- and post-surveys measuring their experience with and attitudes toward computers, the Internet, e-textbooks and print textbooks. Research findings indicate: (1) 65% of the students are willing to read another e-textbook and (2) cost savings is the most compelling reason to read the e-textbook. Students encountered technical difficulties (page/highlighting freezes, printing problems, and slow network) that were frustrating enough that 10% of the participants switched to print textbooks. Students acknowledge the need to focus when reading their e-textbook. Many students voiced a preference to read their next e-textbook on an e-reader because first, the reader was a physical object reminding the student to read and second, offered no distractions such as the ability to simultaneously access social networking sites. 10% of the students actively sought assistance and/or responded to email messages from the librarians. A review of recent literature indicates more needs to be learned about student digital reading comprehension, barriers to accepting e-textbooks, and the pedagogical implications for e-textbook use (as well as for online study). Bibliography available on request.

How do our alumni stay current once they graduate and are away from academic information resources? Very few studies have addressed how alumni stay current in their field after graduation. This research surveyed the graduate and undergraduate Social Work alumni of The College at Brockport in asking key questions. Are you able to stay current with research, especially without access to article databases? Do you receive support from your employer to stay current? Does this include money/time off for participating in Continuing Education Programs (CEP), conferences or accessing article databases? This paper looks at the methods for, and importance of, staying current and analyzes results from a survey and makes recommendations for graduates, departments and librarians regardless of profession.

Grounded in a campus-wide strategic planning effort and funded through a campus-wide lottery-based grant, the library at a small state-supported institution began a year long initiative with the primary objective of familiarizing faculty with the concept of information literacy. All librarians facilitated a series of hands-on, discipline-based workshops offered to faculty. The workshops served as the groundwork for the initial steps toward embedding information literacy concepts into the general education curriculum with the majority of classroom faculty participating in one of the workshops by the end of the academic year. This article outlines the history and steps taken in the process.

This two page handout accompanies the poster The Brockport Staffing Model and explains in more detail how we run our repository.

This poster presentation shows how 68% of the Drake Memorial Library staff contribute to the success of Digital Commons @Brockport in small, manageable ways.

This slideshow features veterans connected to The College at Brockport from the Civil War to the present day. Updated for 2013.