Open Educational Resources Collective

The Open Educational Resources Collective (OER Collective) is a capacity- and capability-building service designed to enable university libraries in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand to start or scale up open textbook publishing. The service model is built around community and collaboration and designed to harness the collective experience across CAUL Member institutions to accelerate the adoption of open textbook publishing and use in the region.

The Collective is not just a platform for publishing - although it does provide one. 

It provides the administrative infrastructure, training, community spaces, guides and resources that university libraries need to establish, grow and support open textbook publishing programs. The Collective facilitates community and collaboration across institutions for both library staff and authors. And importantly, it supports the production of open textbooks by providing funding to support authors in developing open textbooks through a grant program that has awarded more than $93,000 in grants in its three years of operation.

The platform

We provide a publishing platform for Australian and New Zealand open textbooks. The shared Pressbooks platform allows institutions to try out open textbook publishing without committing to a platform and without the administrative overhead of managing one. It's also where OER Collective grant-funded books are published. On our Pressbooks platform, participating institutions are building an open textbook catalogue of titles written specifically for the Australian and New Zealand contexts.

Check out the current list of published titles in the catalogue.

You can also check out the current list of forthcoming titles.  

Participation

Participation in the OER Collective is open to all CAUL Member institutions in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Participating institutions pay an annual levy that funds staffing, the grant program, guide and template maintenance and development, and the Pressbooks platform. Levies vary from year to year. 

2024 participation tiers

Local institution tier - $3,500 (AUD)

The local institution tier is designed for institutions with an open publishing platform that would like to benefit from the range of support, capacity-building activities, and resources the Collective offers without publishing on the Collective Pressbooks platform.

Participation entitles library staff and academic authors at the participating institution to:

  • apply for open textbook grants
  • access the communities of practice for [library staff] and [academic authors], including 
    • email list membership 
    • a monthly community of practice meeting that focuses on a key topic, as requested by the community
  • access to live and recorded training
  • an annual community day event
  • access to the Pressbooks platform for authors and librarians involved in new or continuing collaborative projects. 

Participation levies also contribute to the ongoing maintenance and development of openly accessible, Creative Commons licensed guides and templates via the [OER Collective Publishing Workflow guide].

Collective user tier - $4,000 (AUD)

The Collective user tier is designed for institutions that want to publish open textbooks on the Collective Pressbooks platform.

This tier includes all of the same entitlements as the local institution tier, in addition to:

  • space to publish up to two open textbooks on the OER Collective Pressbooks platform
  • the option to publish up to two additional open textbooks on the OER Collective Pressbooks platform for an additional fee of $500 (USD) per book.

Participating institutions

In 2024, the OER Collective grew to include 42 participating institutions:

  • Auckland University of Technology - Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau (new in 2024)
  • Australian Catholic University
  • Bond University
  • Charles Darwin University
  • Charles Sturt University
  • CQUniversity (New in 2024)
  • Curtin University
  • Deakin University
  • Edith Cowan University
  • Federation University
  • Flinders University
  • Griffith University
  • James Cook University
  • La Trobe University
  • Lincoln University - Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki (new in 2024)
  • Macquarie University (new in 2024)
  • Massey University - Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa
  • Monash University 
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • RMIT University
  • Southern Cross University
  • Swinburne University of Technology
  • University of Adelaide
  • University of Auckland
  • University of Canberra (new in 2024)
  • University of Canterbury - Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha
  • University of Melbourne
  • University of New England
  • University of Newcastle
  • University of Otago - Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo
  • University of Queensland Library
  • University of South Australia
  • University of Southern Queensland 
  • University of Sunshine Coast
  • University of Sydney Library
  • University of Tasmania (new in 2024)
  • University of Technology Sydney
  • University of Waikato - Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato
  • University of Western Australia
  • University of New South Wales
  • Victoria University of Wellington - Te Herenga Waka
  • Western Sydney University.

Get involved

Library staff

If you are a staff member at a participating institution, you can sign up for the Library Staff Community of Practice. You'll be notified of upcoming meetings and events via the email list.

You might also like to contact your local OER Collective Institutional Contact to learn more about what is happening at your institution. Their details are in the contact directory.

Academic authors

If you want to get involved in the OER Collective, please contact your local OER Collective Institutional Contact. Their details are in the contact directory.

Questions? We'd love to hear from you!

If you have any questions about the Collective, please email us. 

Author Grace Daw
Last modified 5 September 2024