ACRL Artificial Intelligence (AI) Interest Group

You're invited to a one-hour panel discussion on AI and OERs on February 4 at 2:00pm (EST), hosted by the ACRL STS Hot Topics committee.

Join panelists Reed Hepler, Sarah Norris, Lily Dubach, and Jennifer Goodman as they discuss how AI can be used in developing OERs in the sciences.

OER Evolved: AI, Libraries, and the Next Generation of Open Education 

February 4, 2025 at 2pm ET | 1pm CT | 12pm MT | 11am PT on Zoom (Register here!)

 Open Educational Resources (OER) are transforming education, and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) is accelerating this evolution. This event explores how AI is reshaping OER creation, curation, and accessibility, with libraries playing a crucial role as hubs of expertise and resources.  Join us as our panel discusses opportunities, challenges, and practical strategies for leveraging these tools. 

Panelist Presentations:

Sarah Norris and Lily Dubach from U of Central Florida with an Overview of the Current AI/OER Landscape

"The intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and open educational resources (OER) holds significant potential for transforming education and scaling innovation. This presentation will offer an overview of the existing scholarly literature to describe the current landscape, including the opinions, opportunities, challenges, risks, and emerging trends. AI can play a pivotal role in enhancing the adoption, adaption, and authorship of OER, both through small experiments and larger theoretical discussions. However, AI also presents challenges and risks, including data privacy concerns, algorithmic bias, and ethical implications, in addition to a broader potential impact on intellectual property rights and sustainability of the OER ecosystems. This overview will provide takeaways on the intersection between AI and OER, informing future strategies for leveraging their combined potential to drive innovation and accessibility in education and as a way to scale impact for the Open Movement."

Reed C. Hepler from College of Southern Idaho with Copyright Concerns Related to AI and OERs

 "Copyrighted materials place severe limitations on the abilities of educators and administrators. Open Access materials have been made completely free to the public with no hidden costs or fees but cannot always be edited or combined. Open Educational Resources can be reused in many ways and formats, traditional and innovative. Generative AI offers personalization of learning and integration of a wide range of materials in new iterations, but prompts questions about copyright, what it means to be a "user," ownership, and fulfillment of learning objectives. This presentation examines the implications, opportunities, and challenges of incorporating each of these materials into a new form of education, using modern technology and materials according to traditional principles."

Jennifer Goodland from San Juan College with Using AI to Create Curated Packages of Library Resources

"When people think of Open Educational Resources (OER), they usually imagine open-access textbooks. At San Juan College, we're taking a different approach. Instead of a single textbook, we create OER as packages of curated library resources, complete with a short summary of each and reflection questions to help guide students through the material. This method takes advantage of the variety of perspectives already available in library collections while keeping things flexible and affordable for both students and instructors. Prompt engineering plays a key role in this process, helping us refine searches, tailor content to specific learning goals, and enhance the quality of reflection questions. I'll walk you through how – and why – we developed this model, and how our methodology has improved educational equity."

Panelist presentations will be recorded. Please register for the panel discussion at this link. If you have any questions about the event, please email the STS Hot Topics Winter Chair, Meg Frost (megan@byu.edu).

Thanks for posting about this! This is a great line up of topics.