Nikki Rech is your OER/ALG Library Champion. She is also the liaison to COSM and the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, as well as liaison to the McNair Scholars Program at Georgia Southern. Nikki is passionate that education is a right and should be accessible and affordable to all. She's also incredibly excited that OER offers the opportunity to provide a voice to marginalized and underrepresented groups. OER have been shown to increase student success, increase the pedagogical strength of a course, decrease DFW rates, increase the number of credit hours taken by students, and of course, reduce the financial burden faced by many. Nikki is happy to do a preliminary search for any faculty interested in exploring OER options for their courses, and also offer help with applying to ALG's Textbook Transformation Grants.
Debbie Walker is your OER/ALG Instructional Design Champion. As the current Interim Director for the Center for Teaching Excellence, Debbie is very excited to champion the use of OER materials. Research has shown that the use of OER materials in courses increases student success, particularly for at-risk populations. Developing or adopting OER materials provides an excellent opportunity to re-evaluate course design and delivery making OER is a double win! Who can argue when students save money and have a better learning experience?!