Language OER at KU

"The faculty of the University of Kansas (KU) is committed to sharing the intellectual fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible and lowering barriers to its access."- KU Open Access Policy

KU was the first public university to adopt an Open Access policy and was a co-founder of the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI). It maintains KU ScholarWorks, an open repository of scholarly work produced by KU faculty, staff, and students, in addition to hosting an Open Journal System that supports dozens of KU-affiliated journals. It is also a leader in the creation of Open Educational Resources (OER), defined as "teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others" (Hewlett Foundation). KU’s strong commitment to OER can be seen in the Libraries’ OER Grant Initiative, which supports the creation and adoption of OER on campus, and a Provost-level Textbook Working Group focused on the broader issue of textbook affordability.

The Open Language Resource Center facilitates the creation of OER by providing support for grant and research projects focusing on languages and cultures. This support can range from the use of portable equipment for collecting materials, to scripting and graphic design assistance, to basic audio and video editing, to consultation on best practices, Fair Use and accessibility. Its work in OER began with technical support for a series of History of Black Writing summer institutes funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. That work laid the foundation for the OLRC's own larger-scale projects, most notably Acceso, an online curriculum for intermediate Spanish, and Mezhdu nami, an online curriculum for beginning Russian. The OLRC (formerly known as the Ermal Garinger Academic Resource Center) has been a named partner on seven NEH grants and was awarded a Title VI National Language Resource Center grant for 2018-2022.

What follows below is a selection of language OER produced by KU faculty. Items highlighted in gray were created with the assistance of the Open Language Resource Center.

Language OER at KU
TitleLanguage Level
Au Boulot ! Frenchbeginning
Chapeau !Frenchbeginning
Supplementary Materials for Svašta u Mojoj Glavi.Croatianintermediate
MedienstundeGermanbeginning
Deutsche GrammarphonGermanbeginning
ChitaPa BayHaitianbeginning
Haitian Creole - English / English - Haitian Creole Medical DictionaryHaitian all
Haitian-English Medical PhraseologyHaitianall
Survival CreoleHaitanbeginning
Ti Koze Kreyòl: A Haitian-Creole Conversation ManualHaitianbeginning
Tajik Persian: Readings in History, Culture and SocietyPersianadvanced
Baticum! Curso avançado de português brasileiro, língua estrangeira, a partir de textos da MPBPortugueseadvanced
Imanalla: An Introduction to KechwaQuechuabeginning
Kechwa storiesQuechuabeginning
Kechwa-English-Spanish Trilingual DictionaryQuechuaall
Между нами: An Interactive Introduction to Russian!Russianbeginning
Short Reference Grammar of Standard SloveneSloveneadvanced
English-Somali DictionarySomalibeginning
AccesoSpanishintermediate
Palabras propias: La historia cultural del mundo hispanohablante a través de textos primarios.Spanishadvanced
Greetings from the Teklimakan: a Handbook of Modern UyghurUyghurbeginning
Dobra formaUkrainianintermediate
Hujambo!Swahilibeginning
Incorporating CorporaGermanall
Konuşan ParagraflarTurkishadvanced
Le pontFrenchadvanced
CommuniquonsFrenchintermediate/advanced
Russian Aspect in ConversationRussianintermediate/advanced
Ting Yi TingChinesebeginning
Para vivir con saludSpanishadvanced
The Writing on the Wall: The Russian Orthographic Reform of 1917–1918Russian 
M.A. Bulgakov’s “Future Prospects” and “In the Café”Russian 
Aleksandr Blok’s TwelveRussian 
Chinese Reading ModulesChineseintermediate/advanced
Uyghur Reading ModulesUyghurintermediate/advanced
Russian Writers in ResidenceRussian Advanced
Russian Reading ModulesRussianintermediate/advanced
Postcards from AbroadEnglish 
Italian Reading ModulesItalianintermediate
Spanish Reading ModulesSpanishintermediate
Mapping Tolstoy's War & PeaceRussian 
Ukrainian Reading ModulesUkrainianintermediate