 Great. Hello everyone and thank you for joining today. I'm going to talk with you for about 25 minutes on a topic entitled examination of how open educational resources fall short of being accessible inclusive and disruptive. So let me get right to it here just one second. So I'm just going to talk to you a little bit about how open educational resources or OERs may actually perpetuate inequity and things to remedy that. So I won't talk about how teachers, practitioners, funders and institutions can actually disrupt this way of facilitating the use of OERs across the different institutions, states and countries. So let's think about OERs. They're so close and they're so far away depending on who has access to them. But keep that in mind as we think about OERs today, so close and yet so far. And so as you think about OERs and if you're one of the practitioners or one of the librarians or someone involved at this year, I want us to think infrastructure whenever we think about open educational resources at the baseline who truly has access based on technology and other barriers or challenges that may impede that access. Think about equity. Everything that we do in terms of open educational resources should be about equity and thinking big and thinking about inclusion, who's at the table, who's not at the table and who has access truly. So if you're here at this conference, you know what OERs are in digital form, open license, free access in lots of different forms. But when you think about OERs, think about how young it really is, the whole movement really is. You think about 2002 when UNESCO first coined the term. Of course, there were folks doing it before, especially the Stem 2000 plus program in Africa, but it really became something known around the world when it was coined officially just 18 years ago. And 18 years ago was very young. Someone's going to say at this point, we are truly in an empathy stage. We're learning what works. We're learning what doesn't work. We're learning who has access and who doesn't have access. So it's really important to keep that in mind. So listen to me over the next 23 minutes or so about OERs and equity, diversity and inclusion. And so when UNESCO coined the term, they had very lofty ambitions. Everyone involved in OERs had lofty ambitions about who was going to have access to all of this innovation, all of these phenomenal professors and educators and companies all invested in making this happen. Very lofty ambitions. And there's a particular person here who talked about his perception of what OERs and the Internet was going to do for the world. Education through the Internet was going to be the great equalizer. It was going to afford a world-class education for everyone. Even the student in the most remote areas were going to get access through the use of these OERs. And that's a very lofty ambition. And it has millions of people have gained access to educational material that otherwise wouldn't have access because of what we're doing around the country and around the world with OERs. But one of the things we have to think about when we think about OERs is the whole digital divide. And one of the things that the COVID-19 showed the world was the disparities that continue to persist in many different ways around the world. And so let's talk for a moment then about the digital divide because that's a platform in which all of this work rests and is centered. So connectivity. Did you know that 52% of the world's population still has no Internet access? That is disconcerting, especially when you think about there's 7.8 billion people in the world. And these statistics tell us that over half of those folks have no Internet access, which obviously is tied to our work when we put out those OERs. So unless we address the whole broadband issue, Internet connectivity, we're going to continue to have this divide between the haves and the have-nots despite the great intention and all the work that goes into OERs that we're all creating. And so let's look at the whole Internet users concept because that's what we talk about a lot when we talk about OERs. But I want to ask that you all look beneath their surface. Look at these numbers. It looked pretty impressive overall. Just looking at 11 countries out of over 180 some countries and numbers look pretty impressive in terms of Internet users. I'm going to encourage you all to look beneath the surface however. Look at China, India, the United States. China, 1.4 billion people and a 940 million users. India, 1.3 billion people and 743 million hundred million users. And look at the United States, 312 million people. Our users are Internet. And it looks like almost everybody in this country has access to the Internet. But again, we'll ask you to look beneath the surface when you start comparing the hundreds of millions and the billions in total context. And then the true accessibility behind the numbers. So let's look at continents. Let's look at Africa, the Americas, the Arab states, Asia, the Commonwealth, and then Europe. The number here is very disconcerting. Look at Africa, having access to a lot of the work that we're doing and work that's offered over there as well. 28.2 percent of Africa, the continent, where there's about 1.3 billion people have access. So literally, the country is being left in the dark in terms of all these opportunities that are being afforded, disproportionate to already high income countries and continents. So that's something to think about. And it's also equally disconcerting. We think about Asia that has billions of people in Asia alone and look at the very low numbers. And if we further dive deep into the data, it's going to show some companies, countries, and Asia are even more disparately treated in terms of having access to what's going on through the internet. Well, some may say, well, Jacqueline, what do you expect between high income countries and then low income countries and continents? It's going to be a disparate, of course there is. But the United States is going to be a lot better. I say not so much and not so fast. Let's look at that as well. And most of us have internet coverage at home. We know how fast and how slow the internet is. We know how inconvenient it is when it's down. You know how much we pay when we pay monthly bills. But can you imagine wanting that and having no access to it? And look at the United States. It doesn't look so great after all. If you look at the colors that are in turquoise, the states in turquoise, those with the best access regarding coverage, speed, and actual access. 10 states that are doing, okay, they have those turquoise states that aren't doing, well, I'm sorry, the burgundy states that aren't doing well at all. There are 10 word states, Mississippi, Maine, and less than the Mexico, Nebraska. And then all the rest of us fall somewhere in the blue. And there's a lot of diversity within diversity in terms of access and equity right there in all of those blue states. Actually, it gives you a sense that 314 million uses the internet around this country. Things aren't quite equal nor equitable. We look at that closely. Well, let me just brush it out a little bit more and dive deeper in terms of disparities regarding even people who are in high schools. Well, a lot of this data and resources could be used to benefit their educational experiences. You see right here, United States is facing a Pew Research Center. One in four lower-income teams don't have access to a home computer. One out of four low-income individuals. And you see 18% of individuals are Hispanic. And then 25% are in homes of less than $30,000. This is a huge lack of access for this particular group. The data tells more. Look at black teens and those from lower-income households are especially likely to be affected by the digital homework gap. Can't get the homework done because of a digital lack of access. Look at the column here about Hispanics, about those who have to do their homework on cell phones. That's come out quite a bit from because of COVID. The number of kids around the country who are doing their homework on cell phones. In this particular study, pre-COVID, it was shown that 39% of Hispanics in this particular study was using their cell phone to do homework. In the next chart there, about the number who are unable to complete their homework because of not having a reliable computer or internet connection, 25% of black students indicated this sometimes or often. Then in the last column there about using public Wi-Fi to do homework because no internet connection. And then when it comes to COVID, we know the library shut down and all of those places they had access to were now null and void. I actually started to see teenagers standing in front of restaurants and people's homes during COVID trying to do homework during this pandemic. That's how bad it is and how many disparities there are. That's problematic. Well, open ed. Great, brilliant idea. Lots of people are invested. You've heard for the last three or four days all these great things that we're doing. So I won't talk about those things. Let's talk about the things we aren't doing, okay? Because that's really important to have that conversation. I want to start with my own experiences because I am guilty as well. I have made some mistakes and might be it to do what is good and do what is right. I've made some mistakes and I've learned some things that I should do differently as well and things that I learned that we shouldn't be doing in the name of OERs. And I started my iTunes course in 2013 while a year after they started this. Great opportunity to do this iTunes course. And it was supposed to be fair for art, lots of access across the country for those invested in learning and wanting to know more about human trafficking. Well, I learned very quickly there are some serious limitations when it comes to iTunes University. And I understand it's going to wait in 2021 at the end of the year. But first of all, it requires extensive training. Not all institutions can afford to really train their instructors to do this work on iTunes University. I personally know not to California for a week. Apple headquarters to learn from the best of the best. I was given a MacBook. I had top notch people around me training supervision and assistance. That's not affordable to many institutions around this country or even units in one within the same institution. The iTunes University courses are banked on people having Apple products to really get the full effect of the graphics and their programs afforded and part of it. That ended up being a limitation as well. And not everything that I put on my course that I thought was going to be free, end up being free to my constituents. So I quickly started to figure out some more barriers. I wasn't discouraged. I went on to Lucera and did a massive online course that very next year in 2014. I created this massive online course for four weeks on human trafficking. 30,000 people enrolled on my course. It was unheard of at that time, unheard of over a four-week period. I had 30,000 people enrolled on my course of 187 countries. I was beyond enthused about the reach for open educational opportunities. Well, I quickly learned some things in those four weeks. Besides being sleep deprived for four weeks, all the time zones and things coming in, I learned quite a bit about access and equity. These things happen. Our Prime Minister in one of the countries banned the internet and I lost a whole sector of my group because there was no lower internet connection. Several other countries, there were blackouts because there's energy shortages. So there was blackouts throughout several countries around the world. I learned that multiple choice tests suck. They're Eurocentric, they're paid to Oracle and they're exclusive. I get so much feedback. If you're going to do a course that involves other people from around the world, do not do what you do in the West. Think about other people, multiple choice tests out. And then paper. I've been out of the country between 2007 and 2018, 25 times. I've been in so many countries around the world. I've been out of the state of Ohio to 37 other states. They're in the same time here, meeting all kinds of people and trying to figure this out. And one thing I've learned abroad is that the paper matters. And so if you're going to have someone engaged in your move course, your online education, and if there's a certificate involved at the very end and diploma or piece of paper degree of sometimes people wants it. What I found however, at the very end that there was a cost or a certificate, a two tier level of cost. And what that ended up translating into was these certificates were worth some people for one month, two month, or three months of salaries. So they did all this work because they wanted to get the very end only to find they had no money to actually get the paper. And they needed that paper for the next job and this opportunity and next program they were seeking to get into. So it became cost prohibitive. I was discouraged and disheartening. Unfortunately, this is what I've learned about thinking about other ways to do this. Well, I didn't give up. I'm still working to make this right to be inclusive. Take the time. Me and a doctor student wrote 13 chapter book, wonderful experience, learned a lot, wanted it out there. It's on an internet post. Can get it is in my course, wonderful opportunity. What I found is all textbooks are not equally created. And these are three of the ones that I absolutely love and I read myself. They are phenomenal, phenomenal textbooks. But there are some issues regarding open textbooks, they're all not created equally, period, we're going to really keep that in mind when it comes to textbooks and having poly assurance. But in terms of equity, I found some more problems about faculty and instructors. This is a problem. Attainment for the work varies greatly. If you want someone to put up quality work, this is for all the public online right now, all the D's, all the presidents, folks who take grants and give money for this process, people need to be paid for their work. And a payment varies greatly. I hear some folks may have gotten a thousand dollars from what they've done is some institution, some are getting 16,000, some are getting course files, some folks are getting cash in your checks, some are going to allow an option to come to fruition. There's a huge disparity about how the payments are going out. There's a huge disparity about respecting and valuing the work. Universities and colleges do not respect the work the same way that there was a printed book by a university press or some of these highly regarded publishers. It is not viewed the same. And in terms of livelihood, credit is not given where it's due when it comes to promotion and merit reviews. If universities wants to create these OERs, they need to make sure it's baked into the system equity rights in terms of promotions, as well as merit, as well as raises and bonuses. That's a serious equity issue that needs to be addressed in institutions. So I'm not discouraged yet. I think there's so much good that comes out of this year, but now in my mind, I'm constantly thinking about equity and equality every time I think about OERs. So how to disrupt it? There are some things that we all can do. I'm going to start with institution. It's really important that we all collect data, see what we're doing right, collect the right kind of data, be very specific, and then break the data down, disaggregate the data, collect the right type of points of information so you can be proactive and doing something about this inequity and disparity. To audit yourself, how many racial minority authors have you had involved in your institution in doing this work? How many disciplines are overrepresented? We always talk about those who are underserved and marginalized. Let's talk about those who are over-served, those who are over-represented and overused and have access and opportunities. Let's think about that as well. Let's look at the diversity of the courses developed in Kucera and other online educational platforms. How diverse are they? Are they something that racial minorities will want to talk about and take enrolling? Do they include issues and concerns of women, people with differing abilities from different countries? Let's do a series audit about what we're doing putting out there. And how diverse are the images? I know in my previous experiences, that was one of the my thorns in the side is finding images and look at the folks I was talking about doing something as basic as holding a cell phone, eating an apple. Images are hard to come by. I know there's creative comments out there in Pinterest, but the racially diverse images are hard to come by. And what are they going to do to change that? In sensitive for grants, we need some money. Show us the money to do this important work. I don't know how to say it. Show us the money. Still access to technology. One thing again about the COVID-19, it has shown us there is a lot of disparity in terms of actual access to technology with our students as well as our staff at many of these universities. We're going to have to address that. Partners, this work should never be done in silos. We tend to do it in silos, but we need to stop doing it in silos. When institutions do this for a living, where I want us all to just stop, have a moratorium, stop for a moment, assess where we are and what we're doing. Let's truly see how inclusive we are in this whole movement to have materials that are open to those out there. Look at our partners run your courses and your ideals by the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, African-American Studies, Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, Women, Geno-Futurale Studies, Indigenous Studies, Disability Studies groups, run it by people in these units at these departments to see how inclusive the work really is. You may think you're doing a good job, but let someone read it from a different unit, different perspective, different frame, different culture, and they may tell you're way off, way off. So keep that in mind. Think about partnership, historically by colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, tribal colleges and universities, and just in general, other institutions, less partner in a multi-directional way. Let's pause and think, what are we doing right and who is missing, who is not part of the discussion? How can we get information to our partners and from our partners to do this the right way? This is truly the best way to make open educational resources educational, open, equitable, and include diverse type of frameworks and approaches to getting this out there. It's really important to be holistic as possible. And then partners, I would have to get my shot to libraries. I could not have done my work without the use and the assistance and the expertise of my librarians and my colleague Jesse Lawyer is coming on next to discuss this here. We need our librarians. They are essential to all that we do. Please stick them out every step of the way they know what's available, what's missing. They understand OERs and in some campuses they're leading the way, they're leading the way in this movement. And of course they understand licensing, something that many of us don't understand. But it's really important to think about our campus librarians. And then partners and for the technology and access, we need to nurture all kinds of relationships different field of tech or Apple, Dell, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, Spectrum, and so forth and so forth and so forth. We're going to have to always keep in mind all of our partners to help us advance our agendas and join us the right way. Okay, I'm almost done here. I want to ask again to just stop. Just please stop what we're doing right now. I'm almost to say it. Just stop. Just stop what we're doing and take a moment to pause and reflect. I want us to create a reward system for doing this work in OER space. I want us to unlearn exclusivity in the academy. We keep in mind most institutions outside of HBCUs and TCUs were really designed to teach white males. That was the platform in which all this is built on. We need to learn how to be, unlearn, I should say, how to be exclusive and learn how to be inclusive. We need to value scholar activism. Many of us are scholar activists and value, please value our work and our attention. We move all the colonial debris that was wrapped in a whole academy. We move it all throughout. We need to also consider disability and ability in the work that we do and how we present it, especially OER. That's really important to keep that in mind. We need to become race conscious. It's okay to say race, black, Latinx, indigenous, Asian, white. Let's just say it. It's okay to say it and focus on it in our work. Again, just please stop. Let's just stop, pause, moratorium and get this right. The definition of open identity is to continue to do the same thing and expect it for results. Let's not be an insane academy. Let's do this differently as an enterprise. Simply said, let's decolonize the academy and OERs ASAP. So some quick thoughts from the educators. I'm almost done here. Let's be very inclusive of the images that we use and the topics that we discuss as educators in doing this work. Let's audit our students' access. We should always know what our students do have and don't have. A quick example is this time when we went online, many of us went online and we read this great summer program. We're ready to go for our young scholars, grades 19-12, who are going to be eventually Ohio State students. We quickly discovered that our young scholars who had grown books during school year had to turn them back in. So there we go. This great summer program and no Chromebooks, no laptop, no computers. Oh my goodness. We quickly called our partners around the university and out there we called Dell Computer, we called Mac, we called Spectrum, everybody said we need some donation ASAP, would you please help us out? And we had some bags and bags and bags. We had no problems doing that. And we were able to get thousands and thousands of dollars to buy hundreds of computers, actual laptops at the very last minute. And we were so glad that we figured it out before the program started. A summer program means nothing with no technology to actually offer to our constituents. Educators again, conduct your assessments. Demographic data is important. Racism, disability, building disability, first gen ESL, do your homework please before you start your offering of material and understand commitment to updates. Once you know better, you have to do better. I too made lots of mistakes. I made lots of mistakes along the way. But I want to do this better down the road and I intend to do it better by being thoughtful and even having a way of looking at this that's very equity minded. So in terms of ending here, reimagining, I want us all at the end of this conference to sit down and think at our homes, our offices, how can we do things differently moving forward? How can we reimagine open educational resources? Think about it in the context of don't think about financial limitations. Think about given what you have at your disposal, what can you do creatively to make this accessible to those around you? Look at your own work. Is it anti-racist agenda or not? And if you know Dr. Evenkindi's work, he says either you're a racist or an anti-racist. Either you're part of the problem or you're part of the solution. There's no ambivalence on where this should go in terms of OER. It's to be very helpful to that. And in terms of accessibility, think about it domestically and globally. Think about it in the context of ESL as a second language, diverse cultures, and differing abilities. All of these things in mind, we do our work in this particular dimension. Use racially and culturally diverse authors, all of the things that we're offering in our institutions, and keep inclusion and equity at the forefront of all that we do. All of our discussions and initiatives must center diversity, equity, and inclusion. And I know it costs, it's going to cost us a moment to pause to do this. And we're in a time of a pandemic. We have a little moments here and there to just pause and rethink how we're conducting our affairs as higher educational institutions. I want to add this to your play, this over this break we're going to have in November, December. How can you do your work differently? How can you update it? How can you be more inclusive? And where are the gaps in terms of equity, faculty, staff, students, partner organizations, other institutions? Where are the gaping holes in your work? I'm going to challenge you to do something different when it comes differently, when it comes to continuing this very important work that we're all engaged in. Thank you all. That was a lot, but I wanted to set the groundwork for what I think is really important regarding being equity-mindedness in how we do our work. Thank you all.