TRU Open Press Plan

OEWG

TRU Open Press Plan by OEWG is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

This book was produced with Pressbooks.

Contents

- Introduction

- 1. ISP application guidelines and instructions

- 2. Project Guiding Principles

- 3. Application Form

- 4. Budget Creation

- 5. Resources from Institutional Planning and Effectiveness

- Appendix

1

Our objective is to be the publisher of first choice for TRU faculty, students, and staff.

We are visitors on Tk’emlups   te   Secwepemc territory within the  unceded traditional lands of  Secwepemcúl’ecw  (Secwepemc  Nation), where learning has  taken place since time  immemorial.

1

- Project submission form instruction fields are in blue:

- TRU Open Press responses are in black:

ISP application information is on this site.

Proposals must be submitted to isp@tru.ca by 4 p.m. on Feb. 15, 2023

Timelines
Projects will be funded for up to three years (2023-2026)

Please complete the following fields detailing how your team’s proposed project meets the criteria for ISP funding, including how it will help TRU achieve its strategic objectives and aligned priorities:

Strategic Priority 1: Student success and research innovation through inclusive excellence in research faculty and staff recruitment.

TRU is already a leader in open education globally with award-winning scholars and practitioners employed across the university; the TRU Open Press is an opportunity to support the open pedagogies and open research that define this global leadership role. The TRU Open Press will support student success and faculty innovation by centralizing OER publishing in-house and protecting it for our users and by supporting the development of high quality materials; it will support faculty research innovation by supporting open data and open scholarship opportunities, as well as offering unique knowledge mobilization strategies. For example, TRU Open Press leadership is already involved in the first peer-reviewed scholarly podcasting network in the world, funded by a SSHRC-PDG grant. Bringing the in-house expertise together in one place will make it more accessible for faculty and provide jobs and experiential learning in this innovative sector for students.

Strategic Objective 1: By 2033, TRU will successfully recruit and retain 200 new tri-partite faculty and 100 staff. We will aim to recruit from equity deserving groups.

The TRU Open Press is of particular interest to TRU’s research faculty given the emergent mandates from the Tri-Council funding agencies for funded work to be shared openly, for data to be stored openly, and for knowledge to be mobilized. Centralizing the supports for open publishing, open repositories, and tools like blogging and podcasting under the auspices of the TRU Open Press will offer faculty a “one-stop shop” both in planning Tri-Council applications and executing these plans once funded. The capacity to offer this support in-house is a differentiator for TRU within the higher education sector, where this work is often left to faculty to manage alone; for this reason, TRU Open Press has the opportunity to be a significant attractor of tripartite faculty. This also makes opportunities for knowledge mobilization more equitably available to all faculty.

Strategic Priority 2: Eliminate achievement gaps across different groups of learners, and honour, truth, reconciliation, and rights.

The TRU Open Press will support faculty in the development of OER. Open education materials eliminate achievement gaps by eliminating costs for all learners; this has a greater material impact on already marginalized student populations. The TRU Open Press will also support the development of multimodal learning materials as part of an innovative, universal design for learning, digital-first approach to developing classroom resources to reach more learners. Further, a significant strength of OER is the ability to localize and Indigenize existing educational materials to make them more directly relevant to TRU learners. The TRU Open Press will also advance a mandate to require meaningful engagement with the Office of Indigenous Education and local Secwépemc community members in the development of OER. This practice will also extend to scholarly publishing and knowledge mobilization strategies.

Strategic Objective 2: TRU will measurably eliminate achievement gaps and honour truth, reconciliation, and rights by developing, implementing, and evaluating a wholistic belonging model that addresses academic, material, and cultural needs of learners.

We can specifically address wholistic belonging for all learners by adapting resources to the academic, material, and cultural contexts of the TRU community. This means localization of content to TRU learner needs, reducing classroom material costs by developing resources in-house, and providing for content to be Indigenized and internationalized with an eye to intercultural learning. The TRU Open Press centralizes the existing expertise at TRU to develop multimodal and multimedia learning materials to reach more learners. The TRU Open Press will also focus on supporting student researchers from across TRU by offering opportunities to learn how academic publishing works and by supporting and developing undergraduate and graduate publishing opportunities. The TRU Open Press will also specifically address the material needs of learners by providing good, on-campus jobs for the development of skills in publishing, design, editing, and research

Strategic Priority 3: Recognized provincially, nationally, and internationally for our unique academic and trades programs that provide students with flexible learning pathways, and experiential learning and community-engaged research opportunities.

The TRU Open Press is designed to provide meaningful experiential learning opportunities for learners in relevant disciplines and to teach students valuable skills in mobilizing knowledge to communities. The TRU Open Press makes materials created at TRU available to community stakeholders and trains students in the value of communicating research widely. As a research university embedded in its regional and cultural communities, TRU will benefit from opportunities to share knowledge widely; the TRU Open Press is an opportunity to harness existing in-house expertise and build capacity to showcase our leadership in this area.

One example of this existing international engagement is the UN SDG Open Pedagogy Faculty Fellowship, an OE Global award-winning international fellowship program that pairs faculty from different institutions and disciplines to create open pedagogy-based assignments that address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG). The conceptual framework for this fellowship is based on the UN SDG’s 17 goals that address a wide range of social issues such as poverty, inequality, education, climate change, and peace and justice which are designed to achieve and maintain social justice and a sustainable future. Participating in this fellowship provides faculty with opportunities to connect with faculty from other countries and disciplines to explore and develop assessments that will help TRU students become agents of change and have an impact on their communities. This is one example of disparate open pedagogy and publishing opportunities underway at TRU that will have a larger impact and more visibility when brought under the auspices of the TRU Open Press.

Strategic Objective 3: We will develop, implement, and evaluate an Academic and Open plan that reflects our commitment to accessible, research informed curriculum, experiential learning, and trades training.

The TRU Open Press will work directly with the Department of Communications and Visual Art to develop experiential learning opportunities in communications design, marketing, new media, and public relations for learners in the Bachelor of Communications degree program; we will also work directly with TRUSU to staff student researcher and developer roles on the team. Students involved in these opportunities will learn transferable, job-ready skills in areas ranging from document design and web development to audio and video production and editing to marketing and communications. The TRU Open Press, in addition to being the publisher of first choice for the TRU community, will also strive to be the employer of first choice for TRU learners.

Project Proposal Review Process

Project proposals must be submitted via email to isp@tru.ca by 4pm on February 15th 2023. The Provost’s Office will coordinate the submission of proposals received by that date. Once submitted, proposals will be reviewed by the Mission Fulfillment Executive Committee who will complete a first-round peer review of the proposals.

First round review is intended to provide formative feedback on the content and criteria of the applications according to the guiding principles and will not include a review of budget information.

Upon completion of the peer review, all proposals will be submitted to committee comprised of the Provost, VP Research, VP University Relations, and a representative from Finance. This committee will review full proposals, including budget information and the peer review feedback provided by the Mission Fulfilment Executive Committee.

Proposals that are conditionally accepted to move forward will be given feedback for improvement according to the peer feedback, including potential opportunities to collaborate with other teams to ensure that all strategic priorities are addressed.

Proposals that are not accepted for funding will be informed that they will not be moving to the next stage for 2023 funding. All project teams will receive their formative feedback regardless of whether they are accepted or not.

Teams invited to the second stage will be required to revise (if appropriate) and resubmit their proposals via email to isp@tru.ca by 4pm on March 1st, 2023. Revised proposals will be re-evaluated by the subcommittee of the Senior Executive and final decisions regarding project priorities will then be made.

Teams are informed of the final decisions via email on March 15th, 2023. Funding budget lines are created for project on March 30th, 2023. At that time, approved project teams may begin their project development and implementation.

Ongoing Reporting

All ISP project teams will be tracked through the standard fiscal year via quarterly reporting. A budget officer will be assigned to ISP to work with the Provost on ISP oversight. Project teams will be expected to meet with Provost each budget quarter to review project implementation and evaluation. Teams will also provide written reports for information to Senate twice yearly.

2

Project Guiding Principles

Project submission form instruction fields are in blue:

Project Guiding Principles

Each project proposal should reflect the following guiding principles. These principles will also be used to assess the proposals.

1. Clearly aligned with at least one of the strategic priorities (worth 10 percent overall).

2. Collaborative and inclusive of a wide-range and diversity of units; must include academic unit(s), students, and authentic community research engagement where appropriate (worth 20 percent overall).

3. Embeds a student experience lens across all aspects of the project, including throughout the design, implementation, and evaluation (worth 20 percent overall).

1. OER development as centrepiece, looking at improving access and outcomes.

2. Student researcher jobs.

3. Platform for undergraduate/graduate publishing.

4. Ensures a strong evaluation and assessment process is included in the project design. Cyclical reporting to the Provost/Senate will be required (worth 30 percent overall).

1. Quarterly reports outlining: projects in process; resources in use; student involvement; adoption of existing OER and estimate of cost savings; outreach activities.

2. Metrics: uptake of OER; projects in process; faculty connections.

5. Capacity building (scalability and sustainability) beyond the life of the project (worth 20 percent overall).

1. These tools are essential to maintaining and growing capacity as we look to a research-oriented future at TRU; this is an opportunity to establish sustainable funding for the excellent work already underway and laying the groundwork for continued growth.

Project costs are to be clearly itemized and aligned with the methodology and goals of the project. See Budget Creation information.

3

Application Form

Project submission form instruction fields are in blue:

Please use the form below to complete the project proposal. Note that applications for ISP funding should not exceed 7 pages (excluding the budget). Applications should be completed as single-spaced documents using 12-point font.

The criteria below are in a chart format in the application form:

Project Title

TRU Open Press

Guiding Principles

Project Proposal Requirements

Collaborative and inclusive of a wide-range and diversity of units; must include academic unit(s) and students.
(20%)

List the project collaborators. Note that project teams must be inclusive of a wide-range and diversity of units, at least one of which is an academic unit.

- TRUSU  (represented by Jason Cruse, Chriss Blois, and Sierra Rae)

- Office of Indigenous Education (represented by Paul Michel and Tina Matthew)

- Library (represented by Brenda Smith and Tania Gottschalk)

- Office of Research and Graduate Studies (represented by Sukh Matonovich)

- Communications and Visual Arts (represented by Shannon Smyrl)

- CELT (was represented by Catharine Dishke)

- Open Learning (represented by Don Poirier and Paul Martin)

- Learning Technology and Innovation (represented by Brian Lamb)

- OEWG (Open Educational Working Group, a cross-campus group of faculty, staff, and students interested in open education) membership (represented by Brenna Clarke Gray and Marie Bartlett)

RACI-Open Press 15Feb2023

The following visual recordings are from TRUSU’s student caucus focus groups, and meetings with project partners.

Multi-year projects that are aligned with at least one of the strategic priorities
(10%)

Describe the purpose of the project and the strategic priorities to be addressed. Include relevant institutional data or literature supporting the project purpose.
Our goal is to be the publisher of first choice for TRU faculty when they create educational and scholarly materials.

The TRU Open Press combines the existing strengths of TRU’s celebrated open platforms and expertise in learning design and resource development to offer wrap-around supports for the creation and development of open educational resources, open scholarship, and open pedagogy projects. The intention of the press is to solidify the existing infrastructure to be ready for TRU’s next phase as a research-first university while celebrating and supporting the existing community ethos to teach and learn in the open.

The Press will be a “one stop shop” provider of all necessary expertise in web-first publishing (PressBooks), open pedagogy and open scholarship (WordPress), student voice and scholarly knowledge mobilization (podcasting, blogging, video), and interactive media for homework systems (H5P). This project seeks to resolve a number of cross-university concerns, including:

- The need for research faculty to be supported in developing open research plans and robust knowledge mobilization strategies in alliance with Tri-Council agency goals, and support for execution on these plans.

- The need for high quality, low-cost learning materials in order to best support TRU learners and eliminate achievement gaps, particularly for students from equity-seeking groups.

- The need for these materials to be localized, Indigenized, and internationalized as appropriate for the intercultural learning community at TRU.

- The need for faculty and staff to be supported in developing these resources as well as maintaining and updating them over time.

- The need to develop more high quality experiential learning, employment, and research publication avenues for TRU undergraduate and graduate students.

In a moment where academic presses struggle to remain relevant to a changing market, TRU Open Press is digital-first, differentiated by a commitment to unique and compelling knowledge mobilization strategies and expertise in the development of interactive media. No one else in Canada – or beyond – has the in-house expertise of TRU in all of these areas. It’s time to reframe and invest in our assets, especially as TRU looks to a research-focused future.

This project addresses TRU’s Strategic Priorities in the following ways:

Priority 1: Student success and research innovation through inclusive excellence in research faculty and staff recruitment.

- New research faculty need support in developing open research and knowledge mobilization strategies as there are varying levels of preparedness for this work in doctoral programs and it is increasingly a requirement of public external funding agencies.  Knowing this work is supported at TRU more effectively than elsewhere is a recruitment benefit.

- The TRU Open Press also commits to the next generation of inclusive excellence by providing experiential learning and on-the-job training in research and publication to students.

- Innovative commitments to research and scholarship include pathways for teaching-based and scholarly teaching research that are fully recognized as peer-reviewed contributions to their respective fields. An Open Press with a wide mandate to inclusively publish here through a rigorous peer review and editorial framework would be a significant leadership role.

Priority 2: Eliminate achievement gaps across different groups of learners, and honour, truth, reconciliation, and rights.

- Open educational resources that eliminate costs for students improve the material circumstances of students from equity-seeking groups and ensure day-one access to classroom materials. By systematizing the development of these resources in-house and establishing a process for development, revision, iteration, and reuse, we can ensure the materials are of high quality.

- Building and adapting these materials in-house also offers the opportunity to localize, Indigenize, and internationalize our learning materials, making them more directly relevant to the cultural needs of our learners.

- Through in-house expertise in universal design for learning and the development of interactive, multi-modal learning materials, we can address the academic needs of more learners from more diverse backgrounds.

Priority 3: Recognized provincially, nationally, and internationally for our unique academic and trades programs that provide students with flexible learning pathways, and experiential learning and community-engaged research opportunities.

- TRU’s local, national, and global leadership in open education is a significant differentiator for our institution (for example, in 2021 TRU faculty and staff were involved in three award-winning projects at the OEGlobal Open Education Awards for Excellence). This work can grow with support.

- The TRU Open Press is designed to provide meaningful experiential learning opportunities for learners in relevant disciplines and to teach students valuable skills in mobilizing knowledge to communities; specifically will work directly with the Department of Communications and Visual Art to develop experiential learning opportunities in communications design, marketing, new media, and public relations for learners in the Bachelor of Communications degree program; we will also work directly with TRUSU to staff student researcher and developer roles on the team.

- The TRU Open Press makes materials created at TRU available to community stakeholders and trains students in the value of communicating research widely. As a research university embedded in its regional and cultural communities, TRU needs to develop infrastructure to share knowledge widely.

List the project deliverables and timelines for implementation and assessment of impact. ISP projects should be multiyear (2-3 years).

Project Deliverables:

Year One:

- Establishment of Board, hiring of project manager and editor.

- Total inventory of open projects in process at TRU.

- Updated total inventory of OER in use at TRU.

- Marketing and communications to campus about supports for open publishing and knowledge mobilization via the TRU Open Press.

- A minimum of three completed projects and a minimum of six total projects underway with a total minimum impact of 120 students and 6 faculty.

Year Two:

- Update inventories on an annual basis.

- Marketing and communication within TRU, provincially, nationally, and internationally for completed projects, including dissemination at conferences and submission to repositories.

- A minimum of five completed projects and a minimum of ten total projects underway with a total minimum impact of 200 students and 10 faculty.

Year Three:

- Update inventories on an annual basis.

- Marketing and communication within TRU, provincially, nationally, and internationally for completed projects, including dissemination at conferences and submission to repositories.

- A minimum of five completed projects and a minimum of ten total projects underway with a total minimum impact of 200 students and 10 faculty.

- Secure ongoing funding for TRU Open Press.

In addition to these deliverables, we will report out regularly to stakeholder groups with the following schedule:

- Open Education Working Group, 2 x year

- Senate Teaching and Learning Committee, 2 x year

- Senate Research Committee, 2 x year

- TRUSU, 2 x year

- Faculty Councils, 1 x year

- Senate Academic Planning and Affairs Committee, 1 x year

- Senate Qelmúcw Affairs Committee. 1 x year

- Senate Student Success Committee, 1 x year

Student experience lens embedded throughout
(20%)

Describe how the project, design, implementation, and evaluation will incorporate a student experience lens.
1. OER Development: centred on improving student experience with student involvement at all levels of development and implementation. In particular, student experience will be improved through a focus on localization, Indigenization, and internationalization of OER published by the press, engaging a sense of wholistic belonging for students. OER success will be measured by uptake and therefore cost savings and learning outcomes for students.

2. Jobs: TRU Open Press will employ students as content RAs and as project developers. In these positions, students will develop skills in research and editing; knowledge mobilization;

3. Experiential Learning: The TRU Open Press will function as a much needed opportunity for students to apply their learning in supported professional contexts, particularly students in Public Relations and the proposed Major in Communication Design, who will be looking for opportunities in areas digital content production, layout, graphic design, etc. CVA aims to have capacity to require 3 credits of Experiential learning for every graduation in Communication and Journalism in the next 3-5 years. The Open Press will be an essential partner to achieving this goal, along with other campus-connected opportunities like the Omega, the Community Radio, the Wolfpack etc. Opportunities for course-based projects related to the design and publication elements could also be explored.

3. Academic Programming (Communications): Particularly in the area of Professional writing, we have been working towards processes and resources for pulling together collaborative teaching and learning materials (like a living case study bank, and OER with an emphasis on ancillary resources for teaching professional writing). This is particularly important in areas where there are multiple sections of standard courses and a significant reliance on sessional faculty. The Communications and Visual Arts department has therefore committed to using TRU Open Press to support their academic programming. From this leadership role for Communications, we anticipate other large first-year courses following suit.

4. Disseminating research: In addition to training students in the development of scholarly publishing, TRU Open Press will prioritize the development and support of platforms for publishing original undergraduate and graduate research at TRU and beyond. This includes open journals and open web projects, as well as training students in open data storage practices. Students who have worked with the TRU Open Press will be well-suited for future work as researchers in the current publishing climate.

Strong assessment and evaluation process
(30%)

Detail the project evaluation and assessment process, including objectives, outcomes, and measures that will be used to track impact.
Logic-Model-15Feb2023

Evaluation Plan_Open Press_15Feb2023

Baseline data

- BCcampus statistics. TRU is a leader in both number of open textbook adoptions and student savings.

- Library’s OER and ZTC (Zero Textbook Cost) Inventory back to Fall 2020 compiled from Banner, Bookstore, and BCcampus. Example: Winter 2022 Inventory

Capacity building (scalability and sustainability) beyond the life of the project
(20%)

Describe how the project will build capacity at TRU and, if appropriate, how it will be sustained beyond the life of ISP funding.
TRU Open Press will centralize existing tools and expertise at TRU in order to ensure stability and growth. These resources include:

1. Open publishing expertise on multiple platforms (texts, journals, web projects).

2. Open data storage.

3. Expertise in learning object development in multiple modalities.

4. Expertise in knowledge mobilization strategies including scholarly blogging and podcasting.

This work is already happening across TRU, but decentralization has meant an inefficient use of resources and unsustainable workloads. Our goal in establishing the TRU Open Press is to ensure faculty have a single point of access for all the services they need to achieve their open education goals and align with open mandates from external funding agencies. Bringing this work in-house also protects faculty intellectual property and student learning materials for continued iterative development.

The TRU Open Press is also well-prepared to respond to shifting trends in publishing and to answer to needs like the development of open access homework systems. Resourcing this expertise effectively is necessary to ensuring TRU faculty are able to respond to a changing scholarly research landscape.

By hiring students and connecting with faculty who may not already know about the existing resources, we will expand both capacity and demand for these services.

The use of the TRU Open Press by departments like Communications and Visual Art to offer more consistency in materials across first-year courses will easily scale to any other departments who wish to engage.

This project will have a life beyond the three-year cycle of the ISP funding, and a key task for the project manager is to secure continued funding, including from external sources. We believe that the TRU Open Press will become critical scholarly infrastructure for the entire TRU community as we step into our future phase as a research university.

Where appropriate, identify how you intend to engage authentically with community.

Describe how the project will build capacity at TRU in community engaged research and student research training.
A central component of this work is developing student fluency in the dissemination and creation of research and publishing. All funding from Tri-Council agencies now requires a comprehensive knowledge mobilization plan, and the TRU Open Press is ideally suited to use podcasting, blogging, and multimedia as a means of sharing research back into the communities most impacted by it; through experiential learning and jobs, we will train the next generation of scholars to be community-engaged and mobilization-minded.

Further, all work published by the TRU Open Press is open access and cost-free to the end user, making it much easier for community members and people from marginalized communities to engage with the research produced by TRU.

When it comes to developing OER, we are focused on the opportunity open practices provide to localize, Indigenize, and internationalize all work published by the press in order to reflect the communities in which our learners live, work, and engage. This is a critical component of the work of the TRU Open Press and the key argument for bringing texts in-house. This also allows us to develop projects iteratively as necessary and respond to errors, omissions, and changes.

Attach as an appendix a detailed Budget Request to be allocated by year

Please use the attached spreadsheet for providing a detailed budget breakdown.
ISP_Budget_Open Press 14Feb2023

Click or tap here to enter text.

Dean, Director, AVP, approval

Please indicate below if all supervisors of project team members have been consulted about the scope of the project prior to submission.

☐ Yes (consultation is completed)

☐ No (consultation will be completed prior to March 31s, 2023)

4

Budget Creation

Budget Creation

Eligible expenses should reflect resources required to develop, implement, and evaluate the project over a detailed period of time, such as Year 1: Spring/Summer 2023; Fall 2023; Winter 2024; Spring/Summer 2024. Year 2: Fall-2024; Winter 2025.

Eligible expenses can include (not an exhaustive list):

- educational technology,

- hiring of research assistants (contracts),

- project management assistants (contracts),

- course releases for faculty members (in consultation with program Chair/Dean)

- honoraria

- event planning costs (room rentals, etc.)

- third party contractors

Please note that permanent administrative or faculty position salaries will be considered; however, ongoing salary costs for those positions will be the responsibility of the program or unit after the successful completion of the project. Successful completion will be demonstrated in the evaluation of the impact of the project.

5

Resources from Institutional Planning and Effectiveness

RACI Print Out (fillable)

Embedding Integrated Planning into Your Project

EAB Leading Indicators for Barriers Student Success

KeyIndicators

Logic Model

ISP Program Evaluation Planning Methodology Flowchart

General Intro to Project Evaluation – Part 2

1

This is where you can add appendices or other back matter.