The undefined figure: Instructional designers in the open educational resource (OER) movement in higher education

Open Praxis, volume 11 issue 4

“…While recognizing the importance of open being a grassroots movement, and the importance of faculty leading faculty, all of the interviewees discussed challenges in their work they felt could be alleviated with a clearer, well communicated commitment and leadership from senior leaders. There is some suggestion that an open initiative that is driven by IDs or teaching and learning centres will have a limited impact without the support of senior leaders, a point also taken up by Ren (2019). This is not to say that senior leaders were entirely unsupportive, but this support largely seems to come in the form of small pockets of money for OER grants.…”

Instructional Designers and Open Education Practices: Negotiating the Gap Between Intentional and Operational Agency

“…There is general agreement that the role of IDs in higher education in general is complex and not always well understood by peers in the institution (Ren, 2019). This has led to some studies that dive more deeply into the role of IDs in their work in their contexts.…”

“…There is a need to build partnerships and collaborative communities to promote creating and adopting open educational materials in higher education" (p. 15). For Ren (2019) this includes more awareness by faculty of IDs and more faculty collaboration with IDs. Therefore, in expanding OEP research to include educators more broadly, it is important to recognize the tensions with respect to the various roles.…”

“…For example, Richardson et al (2018) examined collaborative relationships between instructional designers and faculty and identified the importance of support from administrators and faculty buy-in as factors contributing to successful collaborative relationships. These themes are echoed in Ren (2019) who underlines the expertise that IDs can bring to these collaborative relationships: "Although IDs have expertise in curriculum development and instructional innovation, they often are ignored or underestimated in producing OER-based courses. It is instrumental to think about what IDs can do to promote OER creation and adoption in higher education" (p. 16).…”

“…There is some suggestion that an open initiative that is driven by IDs or teaching and learning centres will have a limited impact without the support of senior leaders, a point also taken up by Ren (2019). This is not to say that senior leaders were entirely unsupportive, but this support largely seems to come in the form of small pockets of money for OER grants.…”