Research Guides: Open Educational Resources: SPARC Open Education Leadership Program

What Is SPARC*?

SPARC is a non-profit advocacy organization that supports systems for research and education that are open by default and equitable by design. We believe everyone should be able to access and contribute to the knowledge that shapes our world.

As a catalyst for action, our pragmatic agenda focuses on driving policy change, supporting member action, and cultivating communities that advance our vision of knowledge as a public good. From the local to the global level, SPARC works to address the ways in which our knowledge systems exclude people due to racism, colonialism, and other legacies of injustice.

SPARC’s membership includes about 250 libraries and academic organizations across North America. This membership is complemented by affiliated SPARC coalitions in Africa, Europe, and Japan as well as individual member organizations in Australia, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia. Founded in 1998, SPARC operates as an independent project of the New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. SPARC is known by its acronym, which stands for the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.

Fellowship Capstone Information & Resources

ASU's first Open Education Librarian, Amanda Langdon, was a 2021-2022 Fellow of the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program. With Adams State's unique needs in mind, she designed her Capstone project around a small, Hispanic- and Minority Serving Institution in a rural area, underfunded, and with an Open Ed initiative that is chronically under-supported, due to too many campus faculty and staff having too little time to dedicate to support.

Included here are links to the openly-licensed (CC-BY) resources she compiled and built, free for anyone interested to make best use of! The capstone project consisted of 4 main parts:

Brief Gen-Ed Conversion plan
Series of Instructional Workshops based on course-numbers and levels
Calendar of Events template
Updated and restructured LibGuide (of which this is one of many pages)

As the capstone progressed, however, a fifth component was added: a folder of earlier works, which had gotten ASU's initiative moving in the first place.

Capstone Project: Main Google Drive folder
All capstone-related resources are housed in subfolders or within this main folder.
Summary of Capstone Project (Doc)
Brief summery of capstone components and their functions.
Gen-Ed Conversion Plan [folder]
Gen-Ed courses are often the first to be converted to Open Educational Resources ("free" textbooks) due to the large numbers of students impacted by textbook costs per course, and to the lower likelihood of students wanting to keep materials beyond the duration of the course. These outlines can help a librarian or faculty member begin to evaluate the transition from traditional textbook to Openly licensed material.
Presentations (Workshops) [folder]
Series of three (and counting) Google Slideshows designed to educate faculty on Open Educational Resources and related topics. They're organized by a course-style numbering scheme, with 100-level being introductory, basic information; 200-level being a little bit more involved, and 300-level tackling more complicated subjects.
2022 Calendar of OER Events (template) (PDF)
Microsoft Word template for blank calendar + as many academic events as possible that might impact the OER Librarian's plan for implementation and/or the campus' initiative.
Supplemental / Additional Works [folder]
Collection of surveys, workshops, data presentations, and campus events that users can copy and adapt for their own needs.

About SPARC's Open Education Leadership Program (Fellowship)

Open Education Leadership Program

The SPARC Open Education Leadership Program is an intensive professional development program to empower academic professionals with the knowledge, skills, and connections to lead successful open education initiatives that benefit students. Launched in 2017, the two-semester program blends online, peer-to-peer, and project-based learning to build a comprehensive understanding of the open education field coupled with practical know-how to take action on campus and beyond. Structured as a fellowship, each cohort becomes a vibrant community of practice that is further enhanced by expert instructors and mentorship support.

Program Outcomes

The SPARC Open Education Leadership program is designed to benefit academic professionals with any level of experience in open education, including those just getting started with a new initiative and those with more experience looking to take their work to the next level. By putting practice, community, and real-world impact at the center, the program provides an environment where participants, instructors, and mentors learn and grow from both the curriculum and each other.

Gain a comprehensive understanding of how to approach the discovery, creation, adoption, licensing, and stewardship of open educational resources and how this connects to open pedagogy, teaching and learning.
Build a network within the open education community, both through a cohort of peers and access to leading experts in the field.
Develop skills to define, communicate, and advocate for open education to a wide variety of stakeholder audiences.
Learn how to assess local needs and barriers relating to open education, and design an initiative to address them, while centering equity and inclusion.
Gain practical experience planning, implementing, and assessing an open education project that both has an impact locally and contributes back to the community.
Develop as a leader through personalized feedback, mentorship, and peer-to-peer support.

See SPARC's Open Education Leadership Program webpage for information about Fellows and Cohorts.