David is a second year Libraries Fellow at North Carolina State University. David is leading a strategic initiative which places the Libraries at the heart of the University’s effort to support vulnerable students, especially those who are economically disadvantaged, transfer students and first-generation students. As part of that initiative David is working closely with colleagues to explore and develop the place of Open Educational Resources and Open Pedagogy at NC State.
David’s capstone project, The Open Cafe Express, was a weekly virtual event series which took place synchronously during the Spring 2021 semester and was hosted by David and other colleagues from North Carolina State University Libraries. Each event within the weekly Open Cafe looked at a different theme of Open Education, and sessions typically held the format of a short introductory presentation followed by facilitated discussion amongst attendees.
The primary goals of the Open Cafe Express was to share information and advocate for open interventions within courses as one way of tackling the growing problem of runaway textbook costs on college campuses becoming a major impediment to student success and support librarian and other advocates outside of NC State, interested in learning more about OER, Open Pedagogy and related topics, with ideas, support and guidance. The Open Cafe Express contributed to NC State’s wider campaign to drive OER adoptions across campus, which led to a growing number of courses adopting OER at the expense of commercially published textbooks. David’s Final Report is served as a helpful guide for others pursuing similar goals.
