Utilizing Public Relations Students’ Expertise to Expand the Reach of OER

Institutional support for open educational resources (OER) at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) has been robust over the past few years; however, the awareness, understanding, and adoption of OER among both faculty and students provides an area for growth. To increase awareness of OER, UTA Central Library’s Open Educational Resources and Digital Scholarship Department (OER&DS) partnered with students in a Public Relations (PR) Campaigns course for a 16-week semester in fall 2024. This capstone course took the OER&DS Department on as a client, focusing specifically on increasing awareness and adoption of OER among faculty and students. Functioning like a real-world PR agency, public relations students conducted research, created and distributed content, and developed and executed events to educate the UTA community about OER. By the end of the semester, students’ efforts had resulted in more than 260 followers on the OER student advocacy group’s Instagram account, nearly 400 students and faculty informed about OER during three on-campus events, and six faculty scheduled meetings to discuss creating or adopting OER for their courses. However, one of the most exciting things to result from this partnership is that it produced a roadmap for future collaborations between OER departments, faculty, and students enrolled in public relations, marketing, and advertising courses on college campuses.