Jamie Hazlitt, Librarian for Collection Development and Evaluation at the William H. Hannon Library, has been selected as a fellow in the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program, an intensive professional development program to empower library professionals with the knowledge, skills, and community connections to lead successful open education initiatives that benefit students. The two-semester program blends online, peer-to-peer, and project-based learning to build a comprehensive understanding of the open education space coupled with practical know-how to take action on campus and beyond. Jamie is one of 27 fellows selected from a competitive application pool for the program’s 2019-2020 cohort.
The SPARC Open Education Leadership Program spans two semesters, beginning with an intensive online course in the fall to build open education subject matter expertise. In the spring, Jamie will work with a mentor to implement a capstone project that will help advance open education at Loyola Marymount University and contribute back to the broader open education community as a whole. Jamie will join the rest of the cohort in attending the 16th annual Open Education Conference in Phoenix, AZ in late October.
“Through participation in the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program, I am looking forward to increasing my fluency and broadening my skill-set related to education, outreach, and advocacy for open education in service of our faculty and students at LMU,” says Hazlitt. “I am interested in OER and affordable access to educational materials as a social justice issue, and hope to explore this both at LMU and at other AJCU institutions as a part of my capstone project.”
Since Spring 2017, Jamie has led the library’s efforts to make course adopted texts available as unlimited user e-books in the library collections. She is a partner with faculty on the new Faculty Incubator for Innovative Teaching (FIIT) Grants OER track, and will be collaborating with ITS and CTE to lead this effort again in the next academic year grant cycle.
“Academic libraries sit at the intersection of faculty, students, and high-quality resources, and therefore are essential partners in advancing open education on campus,” said Nicole Allen, Director of Open Education for SPARC. “A large part of what makes our program successful is the unique and valuable perspective each participant brings to it, and a vibrant community of practice develops amongst the cohort. We are proud to have Jamie among our 2019-2020 class.”
The William H. Hannon Library is a member of SPARC, which is a global coalition dedicated to making Open the default in research and education. For more information about the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program, visit the program’s website.