Joe Askins is the Head of Instructional Services at the University of Missouri (MU) Libraries. In this role, he manages the information literacy instruction program for English 1000, MU’s first-year rhetoric and composition course; oversees the delivery and promotion of co-curricular workshops on library services and research processes; and serves as a liaison to MU’s Graduate School, Campus Writing Program, and the Office of Undergraduate Research. He supports MU’s Affordable and Open Educational Resources initiative through the promotion of open educational resources on information literacy concepts for use across the curriculum and the delivery of faculty workshops on the discovery, review, and adoption of materials in the Open Textbook Library. He is a member of MU’s OER Operations Group and an A&OER Coordinating Group for the four-campus University of Missouri System.
For his capstone project, Joe developed a new team consultation service model for supporting the adoption, adaptation, and creation of OER at MU. Historically, instructors have sought advice and support on OER from three key units on campus – the MU Libraries; MU’s Course Design & Technology department (home to the university’s instructional designers and educational technology specialists); and the university-owned and -operated Mizzou Store – but no mechanism was in place to help librarians, instructional designers, and bookstore administrators keep each other abreast about recent inquiries and to share or solicit ideas for open solutions to faculty needs. Under this new service model, teaching faculty interested in OER can initiate a meeting with a support team comprising an OER specialist and a subject librarian from the MU Libraries, an instructional designer from Course Design & Technology, and an administrator from the Mizzou Store, through the completion of a Team Consultation Request Form linked on MU’s OER webpage and the MU Libraries’ OER LibGuide.
Joe also completed a top-to-bottom revision of the MU Libraries’ OER LibGuide and is currently developing internal documentation outlining the team consultation workflow and internal training events to prepare MU subject librarians for their role in providing OER support in a team setting.
