This month’s blog post was contributed by Jenni Breems, Director of Library Services at Dordt University.
For the last few years, the Iowa Open Education Action Team has convened annual OER Communities of Practice (CoPs) to connect educators across the state who are interested in open education resources (OER) through a free professional development opportunity. In 2024–2025, cohorts were convened for the disciplines of Business, Nursing, and Mathematics/Statistics.
Expanding the Impact of the OER CoPs
This month, two Dordt University mathematics faculty members gave separate presentations about OER at the Mathematics Association of America: Iowa Section Meeting on November 14–15, 2025, at Iowa State University in Ames. Both faculty members were part of the 2024–2025 Iowa OER Community of Practice (CoP) for Mathematics and Statistics.
Dr. Nate Benjamin gave a talk called, “Report and Reflections from the Iowa OER Mathematics/ Statistics Community of Practice.” In his talk, he explained the CoP program, defined OER, and gave examples of places to find OER in the field of mathematics. He listed all the participants in his CoP cohort and described their chosen projects, highlighting the breadth and depth of work happening across the state.
Dr. Mike Janssen presented an academic paper called, “My Journey into OER.” His OER journey began in 2016, when he first used OER activities in a calculus course. Since that time, he has expanded OER use to most of his courses and authored/co-authored two OER using the PreTeXt publishing tool:
- Rings with Inquiry, an inquiry-oriented introduction to modern algebra via ring theory.
- Explorations in Modern Mathematics, an inquiry-oriented text for a liberal arts math course.
Dr. Janssen served as a co-facilitator of the 2024–2025 Iowa OER CoP for Mathematics/Statistics.
Why does this matter?
Presentations like these not only showcase the impact of the Iowa OER CoPs, they also help more educators learn about the OER available in their field, and how they can leverage open educational practices in their own teaching.
For 2025–2026, Iowa OER is hosting CoP cohorts in Psychology, Teacher Education, and Agriculture/ Environmental Studies. Watch for new cohort groups in multiple disciplines to begin in Fall 2026.