The OER Foundation is proud to welcome Penn State University to the OERu international innovation network. As Pennsylvania’s only land-grant university, Penn State has a broad mission of teaching, research, and public service. The OERu network offers Penn State another avenue to take its extension mission to a global audience.

 In support of President Barron’s access and affordability imperative, the Penn State OER Task Force was established to explore OER adoption and creation at the University. One of the Task Force’s key recommendations was to join the OERu network to maximise programs for faculty development and OER sharing.

“Penn State is a highly regarded research and teaching university and one of the most prestigious R1 Research Universities“, said Dr Wayne Mackintosh, Director of the OER Foundation.

Penn State has established a dedicated site to support OER and low cost materials at oer.psu.edu. Recently, Penn State launched the Affordable Course Transformation (ACT@PSU) program - a grant-based initiative supporting faculty at Penn State who are transforming courses by replacing high cost published materials with Open Textbooks and/or OER.

Penn State University Libraries has also committed to contributing to the OERu course Learning in a Digital Age by developing support resources and providing face-to-face support for cohorts of learners participating in this course.

The success of the commons is defined by what you give back, rather than what you take out. The OERu network, looks forward to giving back to Penn State in the form of open online courses not normally offered in the local curriculum. One example cited in the task force report is the OERu’s “Introduction to Regional Relations in Asia and the Pacific” developed by the University of Southern Queensland which Penn State could reuse to widen curriculum options for its own students.