Language OER at KU

KU was the first public university to adopt an Open Access policy and was a co-founder of the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI). It maintains KU ScholarWorks, an open repository of scholarly work produced by KU faculty, staff, and students, in addition to hosting an Open Journal System that supports dozens of KU-affiliated journals. It is also a leader in the creation of Open Educational Resources (OER), defined as "teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others" (Hewlett Foundation). KU’s strong commitment to OER can be seen in the Libraries’ OER Grant Initiative, which supports the creation and adoption of OER on campus, and a Provost-level Textbook Working Group focused on the broader issue of textbook affordability.

The Open Language Resource Center facilitates the creation of OER by providing support for grant and research projects focusing on languages and cultures. This support can range from the use of portable equipment for collecting materials, to scripting and graphic design assistance, to basic audio and video editing, to consultation on best practices, Fair Use and accessibility. Its work in OER began with technical support for a series of History of Black Writing summer institutes funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. That work laid the foundation for the OLRC's own larger-scale projects, most notably Acceso, an online curriculum for intermediate Spanish, and Mezhdu nami, an online curriculum for beginning Russian. The OLRC (formerly known as the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center) has been a named partner on seven NEH grants and was awarded a Title VI National Language Resource Center grant for 2018-2022.

What follows below is a selection of language OER produced by KU faculty. Items highlighted in gray were created with the assistance of the Open Language Resource Center.