The CAUL Open Educational Resources Collective began as a pilot project in 2021 under the Enabling a Modern Curriculum Program. The project was conceptualised as part of a larger body of work focused on enabling contemporary approaches to teaching and learning through open educational resources. The project began with the idea of providing university libraries in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand an opportunity to try out open textbook publishing on the Pressbooks platform. It grew into a proposal to establish a collective that drew on the experience of CAUL Member institutions already publishing OER to assist the broader membership in building capacity and capability in OER publishing.
In 2021, a project team comprising staff from across CAUL Member institutions, led by Tahnee Pearse, then Associate Director, Content at the University of Southern Queensland, was appointed to develop a model for the Collective and run a pilot. The project team included:
- Tahnee Pearse, University of Southern Queensland – Project Lead
- Cintamani Brown, Southern Cross University
- Chloe Czerwiec, University of Western Australia
- Anna Duchesne, University of New England
- Richard Levy, University of South Australia
- Jane Norton, Charles Sturt University
- Craig Patterson, Deakin University
- Frank Ponte, RMIT University
- Jaime Royals, University of Adelaide
- Ashley Sutherland, University of Melbourne
- Fiona Tyson, University of Canterbury.
The team spent the second half of 2021 developing the model for the Collective, and the two-year pilot launched in the first quarter of 2022.
Watch the announcement video for an overview of the original pilot model (note that plans for phase two shifted in the first year of operation).
Institutions paid an annual levy to participate in the pilot. The levy provided funding for the grants program and for a part-time Project Officer, who manages the Collective’s day-to-day operations, working closely with the Director, Strategy & Analytics. CAUL funded the Pressbooks platform for the duration of the pilot.
Throughout the pilot’s first year, the project team supported the operation of the communities of practice. Samara Rowling, a freelance editor and publishing consultant, was also engaged to develop the OER Collective Publishing Workflow guide, which provides comprehensive documentation to support librarians and authors working on open textbooks. The project team designed the workflow, drawing on existing guides and other resources. The project lead worked closely with the Director, Strategy & Analytics to oversee the operation of the communities, manage the Pressbooks platform, conceptualise and manage the grant program and undertake modelling for the second year of the pilot. A Governance Group was established to advise the Director, Strategy & Analytics and the Program Director, and develop the grant guidelines and award grants.
The project team was disbanded at the end of 2022, and the CAUL Office assumed its responsibilities. A consultative group, the OER Collective Champions, was established to advise the Project Officer and Director, Strategy & Analytics, and the project lead stepped into a strategic advisory role.
At the end of 2023 and the conclusion of the two-year pilot, the CAUL Board endorsed a proposal to transition the OER Collective from a project to a service. In 2024, the Project Officer became a full-time role.