About
I am the Open Access & Scholarly Communication Librarian for
Iowa State University. In this position, I manage campus initiatives for open access and open education, and serve as the Statewide Open Education Coordinator for the Board of Regents on the Iowa Open Education Action Team (Iowa OER), where I collaborate with institutional leads to develop and assess programs that support open education across the state of Iowa.
My main research interest at this time is how to support newcomers to the field of open education. I have created
guides,
websites, and tools for users to learn more about OER, including a handbook,
The OER Starter Kit, and a series of
Youtube videos intended to introduce faculty to the world of open education. I have also coordinated the Iowa State
Open Education Mini-Grant Program and chair our university’s Open & Affordable Education Committee.
My personal interests lie in open access in the humanities, open education across disciplinary lines, and the very broad category of “open science.”
If you have a research project you are seeking collaborators for, feel free to reach out (aelder@iastate.edu) and I will let you know if I’m interested.
Mastodon Feed
I got to write this month's Resource Highlight blog post for the Iowa Open Education Action Team, and decided to make it a feature of some fun #OER available specifically NOT for Gen Ed courses. There are some great materials out there for electives or mid- and high-level courses that don't get enough love. So check out the few I picked out to feature this month! https://iowaoer.com/2026/01/13/january-2026-resource-highlight-oer-beyond-the-gen-ed-curriculum/ (2026-01-13 ↗)
Do all colleges have this setup somewhere on their campus, or are big lawns with a ridiculous amount of sidewalk options just prominent in the schools I've worked at? (These are the quality posts you come to Mastodon for, I'm sure) (2026-01-13 ↗)
Being in the office the week of New Year's feels a bit like being in a haunted house. It's eerily silent but every once in a while you hear laughter in the distance, or glimpse a figure out of the corner of your eye (typically when one of the other 10 people here gets up to refill their coffee) (2025-12-30 ↗)
Thanks to @cogdog for sharing this excellent article from earlier this year, further cementing my belief that Tel Amiel's work on platformization should be required reading for those in the #EdTech space! This article co-authored by Almeida, Damiati, & Amiel and available in Portuguese, Spanish, English, Italian, French, and German: https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-795X.2025.e105685 (2025-12-03 ↗)
Big shout-out to all of those who spend time carefully and thoroughly peer reviewing articles! When I started doing research seriously, I was a little shocked how some people will agree to serve as a peer reviewer yet their reviews amount to "looks good to me!" Those who put real thought into the task are appreciated more than you know! (2025-12-02 ↗)
Publications
ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2289-0166
Elder, Abbey K., Stefanie Buck, Jeff Gallant, Marco Seiferle-Valencia, and Apurva Ashok (Eds.). (2022).
The OER Starter Kit for Program Managers. Rebus Community, 2022.
https://press.rebus.community/oerstarterkitpm/
Elder, Abbey K.
The OER Starter Kit Workbook. New York, Manifold, 2020.
https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/projects/the-oer-starter-kit-workbook
Elder, Abbey K.
The OER Starter Kit. Ames, IA, Iowa State University Digital Press, 2019. DOI:
https://dx.doi.org/10.31274/isudp.7
Elder, Abbey K. “Commercial Platforms that Utilize Open Educational Resources: A Crowd-sourced Tool for Sharing Information and Assessing Products.” Spreadsheet. 7 November 2018.
https://t.co/xbNC7oVNQP
Elder, Abbey K. “Identifying OER Needs by Discipline: A User Guide & Survey Instrument.” Questionnaire. 4 May 2018.
https://oersurvey.pressbooks.com
