At the September CAUL Council meeting, the CAUL Board announced its decision to retire the OER Collective as a CAUL service on 31 December 2025.
The Collective has been an enormously successful venture. In its four years of operation, 70+ books have been published, over $100k of OER projects have been supported through OER Collective grants, it has achieved international recognition through multiple invitations to feature OER Collective participants and projects in various webinars, podcasts and events, and was awarded the 2024 OE Global Open Education Award for Excellence.
The OER Collective is an initiative of which Members and their staff can be extremely proud.
With a 91% participation rate at the height of its membership, the OER Collective has fulfilled its original mission to build staff capability, empower institutions to publish and contextualise OER that fill textbook gaps in the region, and support collaborative OER creation across institutions and countries to drive national progress in OER for Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
It is time to hand the reins to CAUL Members, empowering institutions to direct their OER paths in line and at pace with their educational strategies and vision.
A heartfelt thank you to the staff listed below who gave their time and expertise to build and lead the OER Collective over the years.
Staff involved in the original ideation and implementation of the OER Collective through the CAUL Enabling a Modern Curriculum Program:
Fiona Salisbury (Program Director for Enabling a Modern Curriculum and OER Collective, CAUL), Tahnee Pearse (Pilot Project Lead), Kate Tickle (formerly Director, Strategy & Analytics, CAUL), Rani McLennan (formerly OER Collective Project Officer, CAUL), Katya Henry (formerly Director, Strategy & Analytics, CAUL), Adrian Stagg, Marion Slawson, Mollie Dollinger, Kate Allman, Steven Chang, Jennifer Hurley, Alice Luetchford, Nikki Andersen, Carlie Daley, Marianne Sato, Lucy Walton, Angie Williamson, Justine Cawley, Yasmine Hall, Michelle Bendall, Lauren Brumby, Anna Findlay, Lachlan Forsyth, Paul Jewell, Anne Lennox, Frank Ponte, Annette Messell, Miranda Newell, Hugh Rundle.
Staff involved in the continued leadership of the OER Collective, in Governance, Advisory, and Working Group roles:
Ash Barber (Senior Coordinator, OER Collective, CAUL), Hero Macdonald, David Groenewegen, Sarah Howard, Bruce Munro, Fiona Tyson, Jay Glaisyer, Kylie Brown, Liz Walkley Hall, Matthew Davis, Cate Bardwell, Gary Pearse, Bronwyn Mathiesen, Kat Cuttriss, Steven Chang, Melissa Cuschieri, Allison Hadfield, Stephanie Davenport, Liz Hounslow, Lyndelle Gunton, Jennifer Hurley, Angie Williamson, Danielle Johnson, Brendan Robinson, Emma McKindley, Jane Clark, Lisa Grbin, Mais Fatayer, Miranda Francis, Sal Kleine, Tim Ormsby, Rachel Doherty, Matthew Lumsden, Catherine Radbourne, Amy Kosandiak, Lucy Walton.
Deep thanks and appreciation go out to the very many more staff across institutions and the region who drove a visionary pilot project to such a high level of achievement.
View the information session recording below:
CAUL will host an end of year webinar to celebrate the success and evolution of the OER Collective and its accomplished community.