You may have seen an email recently that brought you to the site, either to find more details or to register. If not, below is a copy of the email we sent to get the word out. Hope to see you on May 2nd!

We are excited to announce “OpenVA 2.1”, a 3-hour workshop on Open Educational Resources (OER) that will be hosted at the College of William and Mary on Saturday, May 2nd.   Although OER are gaining exposure and adoption across the globe, awareness remains one of the chief obstacles to implementation. This event, then, is about fostering a rich and varied awareness of the many faces of OER.  We are organizing two focused panels to critically discuss:

1. the current OER landscape and what constitutes OER, and
2. first-hand accounts of OER implementation from a variety of disciplines and contexts

These panel sessions will be broken up by an expectedly spirited keynote address from Gardner Campbell, Vice Provost for Learning Innovation and Student Success at Virginia Commonwealth University.  Space in the agenda will be reserved for audience input, as we hope to encourage an engaged dialogue relevant to attendees.  And lunch is on us!

Who should attend: This event is intended to embrace administrators, faculty, librarians, and technologists with interests in OER – from piqued novices to seasoned veterans. We will be hearing from programs that are just starting out in their investigations of OER, to fully integrated curricula. Those attending OpenVA 2.1 will be exposed to a variety of perspectives and reflections about OER and their implementation, as well as resources for exploring OER in their disciplines. There are no prerequisites. Topics such as course (re)design utilizing OER, concerns about quality and copyright, and why OER are gaining traction in higher education are likely to be engaged.

When: Saturday, May 2nd, 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. (doors open at 10 for coffee); conversations to continue offsite following the event.

Where: Media Center
Ground floor, Swem Library
The College of William and Mary
400 Landrum Drive, Williamsburg, VA 23185
Directions: https://swem.wm.edu/about/directions-parking
(Free weekend parking available in all campus lots)

The event is FREE, but pre-registration is required as there is a cap of 50 attendees.  Register at http://openva.org/.  Please distribute immediately to interested staff and faculty.

For questions, please contact Beverly Covington or Jamison Miller.

And please circulate widely!