Mike Chee
Learning, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian
University of Waterloo
Kari Weaver
Learning, Teaching and Instructional Design Librarian
University of Waterloo
As highlighted in the CNI Program Plan for 2019-2020, the acquisition and creation of instructional materials is of primary concern for academic libraries. OER are held up as a major solution, and this is the direction the University of Waterloo Library undertook with the development of the Library’s Online Learning Object Repository (OLOR), an open-access repository of Library asynchronous learning objects. Covid-19 shifted the locus of university instruction from the physical campus to virtual spaces: a situation where we were able to showcase instructional resilience by prioritizing the launching of the OLOR. In this project briefing, we will explore the challenges and successes we have had in moving forward with the OLOR at the center of our learning and teaching strategy, from inception pre-pandemic and soliciting buy-in from stakeholders and colleagues, through the launch of the repository to the continuing efforts to develop learning materials of use and interest to faculty, staff, and students across the University of Waterloo community.