As we near Open Education Week, celebrated globally March 7th through 11th, we are thrilled to talk with Tatiana Bryant about her work and the potential she sees for Open Education to address the many barriers students are facing today. Presently the Research Librarian for Digital Humanities, History, and African American Studies at UC Irvine, Bryant is an active leader in the global Open Ed community, a 2020 OER Research Fellow with the Open Education Group, and a 2021 Pedagogy Lab Fellow at The Center for Black, Brown, and Queer Studies. Her dedication to Open Education is informed by her experience as an instructor and researcher, witnessing student need for accessible, free learning materials.
For those who have never heard of OER or Open Education before, what is your elevator pitch to them?
OER is creative or scholarly work intentionally designed for anyone to use for free, forever.
I became interested in OER and its adoption through witnessing the extreme need students have for materials on course reserve.
Can you talk a little about how you got started working within the Open Education movement?
I’ve worked in academic libraries for over a decade and I became interested in OER and its adoption through witnessing the extreme need students have for materials on course reserve and growing conversations in digital scholarship over the years. I became more active in the space when I was named an OpenCon 2017 Berlin Fellow and began conducting grant-funded research studies on open access and open education.
What about the Open Education movement is most exciting, interesting, or important to you?
What’s most exciting is its impact so far and its potential. The open education movement has transformed higher education by making it more accessible for students. By reducing the financial burden of higher education, open education resources help decrease the anxiety students may experience with affording the cost. OER strengthens the capacity for education to be a right for everyone. There is still a lot of privilege embedded in the open education movement that needs to be overcome, for example, materials that aren't accessible, materials that require strong broadband access for use, as well as obsolete or racist content.
OER strengthens the capacity for education to be a right for everyone.
What work are you doing around Open Education right now?
I am currently the Principle Investigator of a study about creating sustainable OER for Ethnic Studies and I will be talking about this research more in depth in my keynote. I just completed a fellowship for The Center for Black, Brown, and Queer Studies where I produced an audio OER series based on a past oral history I conducted.
What advice would you give faculty who are interested in making their learning materials more affordable, accessible, and inclusive?
I would encourage collaboration with librarians, participate in OER conversations via conferences and online communities, and seek out what others in your discipline are doing around open education. Think about the power that OER grants you to create and curate your students' learning experiences.