Claire Nickerson is the Learning Initiatives and Open Educational Resources (OER) Librarian at the Fort Hays State University (FHSU) Forsyth Library in Hays, Kansas. She chairs the FHSU OER Committee, which administers the Z-Course Grant Program for large-enrollment courses that want to use zero-cost course materials. Claire also sits on the Kansas Board of Regents statewide OER Committee.
In addition to her OER responsibilities, Claire is a member of Forsyth Library’s Teaching and Research Team. She offers information literacy instruction sessions, provides research help, answers copyright questions, and liaises with the College of Business. She also teaches FHSU’s graduate-level Introduction to Data course and has taught several information literacy courses. Claire’s other professional interests include research metrics, new media, and scholarly communications. Her personal interests include sewing, tabletop gaming, aikido, and community theatre. Claire holds an Ed.S. from FHSU, an MLIS from the University of California Los Angeles, and a B.A. in Theatre from the University of Southern California.
For her capstone project, Claire worked to implement a new Z-Course Program at FHSU. The program identified existing courses that use zero-cost course materials and tagged them with a Z-Course Designation in the course registration system. The program also offers Z-Course Grants for large-enrollment courses to convert to using zero-cost course materials. Faculty participating in the grant program attend a Z-Course Boot Camp to help them get started. As her community resource, Claire wrote a paper detailing the process of implementing the Z-Course Program and providing access to related documents, such as the program proposal, program FAQs, messaging sent out to stakeholders, and curriculum for the Z-Course Boot Camp.