August 4 Keynote

Connections, Collections, and Calculations: Behind the Scenes at a Systemwide OER Initiative 

For open education to flourish, you need time, expertise, and resources - what does it take to support a systemwide OER initiative spanning an entire state? Take a tour behind the scenes of Affordable Learning Georgia's supporting infrastructure for the adoption, adaptation, and creation of OER across the University System of Georgia and share what you would need from a program like this in California. Critical services that empower faculty and staff to do amazing things with Open will be discussed, including a Champions program, grants, outreach, repositories and hosting, and the collection, analysis, and reporting of critical data.  

Jeff Gallant

Program Director

Affordable Learning Georgia

Athens, Georgia

Jeff Gallant is the Program Director of Affordable Learning Georgia, an initiative of the University System of Georgia (USG) intended to promote student success and foster educational equity through supporting the adoption, adaptation, and creation of affordable and open educational resources by USG faculty and professional staff. Jeff regularly consults with new open education programs and presents on program management, strategic planning, grant programs, data collection, and reporting. Jeff has been a mentor in the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program since its inception in 2017, a mentoring faculty member of the AAC&U Institute on OER since its inception in 2021, and a co-author of The OER Starter Kit for Program Managers. Before working on Affordable Learning Georgia, Jeff was a Reference, E-Resources, and Virtual Services Librarian at Valdosta State University.