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Midwestern Higher Education Compact offers 15% discount on Creative Commons certificate; alumna details consortial OER work
Summary
The Midwestern Higher Education Compact and Creative Commons promoted a 15% registration discount (code MEC15) for CC certificate courses during an online webinar; alumna Angelique Carson described using the 10-week program to build a consortial OER adoption pilot (Bison Open) and practical campus materials.
The Midwestern Higher Education Compact and Creative Commons onlined a webinar to promote Creative Commons’ certificate courses and a 15% discount for compact members. Annika Mani, OER consultant for the Midwestern Higher Education Compact, opened the session and introduced Creative Commons and alumna presenters.
"Creative Commons is a global nonprofit," said Jenrin Wetzler, director of learning and training at Creative Commons, who described the CC certificate as a practical training program offered primarily as 10-week online courses (with condensed boot-camp options) that teach open licensing, copyright, and open-education practices. Wetzler said more than 2,000 participants across about 70 countries have graduated from CC certificate offerings and that every U.S. state plus Washington, D.C., has at least one graduate.
Alumna Angelique Carson, shared collections librarian at the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC), said she enrolled in the 10-week certificate to gain licensing expertise and to build Bison Open, an OER adoption program at Howard University. "I would do it again in a heartbeat," Carson said of taking the certificate, describing how she used course assignments to create MOUs, slide decks and handouts that were immediately reusable in a pilot funded by her consortial program.
Carson described practical steps she used to boost campus uptake: identify existing allies in centers for teaching and learning or scholarly-publishing units, tie OER work to an institution’s mission and job descriptions, and create a library of materials instructors can adapt. She also cautioned that licensing and digital-accessibility work sometimes requires more hands-on support than faculty expect, and that explaining why a particular CC license is recommended helps instructors feel confident about reuse and translation.
Wetzler outlined ways Creative Commons supports alumni, including small grants for conference attendance and a funding competition for alumni advocacy projects. She also offered logistical instructions for claiming the Midwestern Higher Education Compact discount: register via the webinar slides and enter promotion code MEC15 at checkout or contact Jenren@creativecommons.org for assistance.
Carson shared pilot-design lessons from WRLC: limit synchronous sessions to avoid "Zoom fatigue," offer modest stipends to encourage adoption (she cited a $2,000 adopt-OER incentive used in a pilot), and deliberately build time for participants to meet one another so community ties form. She characterized OER work as advocacy and community building that progresses in small, sustained wins.
The session closed with hosts reminding attendees that a post-webinar survey will be sent and that the recording and slides will be posted on MEC’s website for later access.
