Introduction

How to Use This Toolkit

Building awareness of open educational resources (OER) is rarely accomplished through a single presentation, email, or event. Awareness grows through consistent messaging and visible examples that help faculty, students, staff, and administrators understand why OER matters at their institutions. This toolkit was created to support those efforts.

The resources in this chapter are designed to help you promote your OER adoption, adaptation, creation, and advocacy within your institution. Whether you are a librarian, faculty member, instructional designer, student advocate, administrator, or campus communications team member, these materials can be adjusted to fit your audience and goals. There is no single “correct way” to use this toolkit. This toolkit is organized into several sections that support different stages of OER work. Readers will find resources for building campus awareness through the OER Advocacy Toolkit and helping faculty promote their open educational work through the Faculty OER Promotion Toolkit. The Assets section includes postcards, posters, stickers, bookmarks, social media templates, slide decks, tabletop displays, and email templates. You’ll also find resources that help faculty document and showcase their OER contributions for tenure and promotion. These include sample CV entries, candidate statements, dossiers, supporting documentation, testimonials, and certificates. In these chapters, you will be able to download the template for a pertinent resource, or view examples that can be adjusted for your needs.

As you work through this toolkit, consider the following questions:

• Who are you trying to reach?
• What do they already know about OER?
• Is your goal awareness, promotion, and/or recognition?
• How can you adapt these resources to fit your campus culture and goals?

Funding Statement

This toolkit was developed as part of the OER for Social Justice initiative led by Loyola Marymount University in partnership with Saint Mary’s College of California, Santa Clara University, and the University of San Francisco. The broader initiative was supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot Program which seeks to advance the creation, adoption, and promotion of open educational resources across higher education.

Development of this marketing and advocacy toolkit was further supported through a 2025 Michelson Spark Grant awarded to Loyola Marymount University. The grant supports the creation of openly licensed, customizable resources that help faculty, students, librarians, and institutions increase the visibility and recognition of OER initiatives. The project centers student participation and flexible approaches to OER advocacy that can be adapted across a wide range of institutional settings.

A special thank you to the student collaborators Jonah Dees and Ava Correia, whose creativity and design skills helped bring this toolkit to life. We are grateful to copyeditors Jada Chang and Pema Menice for their careful, thoughtful work in refining this text and proofreading our graphics, ensuring its clarity and consistency.

Licensing and Attribution

Unless otherwise noted, the materials contained within this toolkit use the Creative Commons CC0 Public Domain Dedication. You may copy, modify, adapt, distribute, and reuse these materials for any purpose without requesting permission.

While attribution is not required under CC0, we encourage you to acknowledge the original creators of many of the materials when practical.

Suggested attribution:

Growing Your OER Program: A Marketing and Advocacy Toolkit by Swetta Abeyta, Nataly Blas, Theresa Huff, John Jackson, Jessea Young, and Karna Younger with graphics by Jonah Dees and Ava Correia is licensed under CC0 1.0 unless otherwise noted.