OER Takeover: Day 4 - The Open Educational Resources Steering Group - reflections and next steps for the University of Sheffield

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 By Louise Robson

The University of Sheffield launched the Open Educational Resources (OER) Steering Group in September 2025, with the group aiming to build on the work completed by the OER Working Group (which was active between June 2023 and June 2025).  

The Steering Group is aiming to work with relevant stakeholders, including Schools, to ensure programmes at the University of Sheffield embed the use of OER into curriculum design and delivery, enhancing the student learning experience. We are planning a range of actions and activities over the next few years to achieve this, and we recognise the importance of ensuring that the visibility and awareness of OER becomes widespread across the institution. Our case studies provide examples of how OER have been used or created by Sheffield staff.

An institutional wide survey about OER in 2023 revealed that, out of 204 responses, only 5% of respondents were very familiar with OER, and would consider themselves knowledgeable. In contrast, 37% knew only a little about OER, and 29% of respondents had never heard of OER. When considering the use of OER made by others, or making their own, there was a stronger drive to use what was already available, figure 1. More staff were likely to use already-existing OER (50% likely or very likely) versus making an OER (36% likely or very likely).  This was consistent with the finding that the main barrier to staff using OER was the time to make their own (60% of responders) and time to find suitable OER that already exist (42%).   

The outcome of this survey led to a range of activities by the Working Group, including the development of an Open educational resources site, an open educational resource in its own right given it is available to anyone with the link. This was followed by a range of workshops and awareness raising activities. 


We are now interested in re-evaluating institutional awareness at the University of Sheffield, and seeing what staff think would help them use OERs more in their teaching. So if you work at Sheffield, please complete our Spring 2026 OER survey. Your responses will allow us to see the progress we have made as an institution at training awareness, and identify activities you would find helpful. You can complete the survey irrespective of your role, i.e. you don't need to be directly teaching students.

So, what are the next steps for the OER Steering Group? We want to:
  1. Identify Schools and programmes that can be supported to identify and / or develop relevant OER. 
  2. Work with these Schools (programme leads and other staff) to ensure that, where there are suitable OER (already in place or can be developed), these are embedded into programme delivery.
  3. Develop support for academic line managers to help them guide staff in the appropriate use and development of OER
  4. Work with Professional Services to embed consideration for OER into module and programme development activities and forms. 
  5. Promote awareness and understanding of the OER policy with Schools and provide support for Schools to enable them to make use of the freedoms within the policy. 
  6. Foster an OER community at Sheffield and explore opportunities for partnerships with Sheffield Hallam University and the wider community. 
  7. Advise and make recommendations in support of the commitments laid out in the University OER policy.
  8. Identify good practice elsewhere and promote Sheffield’s good practice.
These activities will be implemented over the next few years, aiming to move the University of Sheffield into a position where as many of our students, modules and programmes are supported by OER. This will provide a supportive learning environment for our students to engage with learning before, during, and even after their studies. 

If you are at the University of Sheffield and are interested in finding out more, want to use already-existing OER, make your own, or participate in our initial programme-level pilot, just get in touch via oer@sheffield.ac.uk.

Louise Robson is a Professor of Digital Innovation in Learning and Teaching, a National Teaching Fellow and PFHEA. She chairs the Open Educational Resources Steering Group at the University of Sheffield. 

The Open Educational Resources Steering Group © 2026 by the University of Sheffield is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International, except where otherwise noted.