Did you know that Francophonie is one of the six core values of the University of Ottawa Library? In our 2025–2030 Strategic Plan, we’ve committed to supporting the creation, dissemination and celebration of French-language knowledge, as well as Francophone cultural expression.
In this series of articles, we’ll look at different practical initiatives carried out by the Library in the following areas:
- Support of teaching with open educational resources in French
- Development of French-language collections
- Open science and knowledge dissemination in French
- Support services in French
- The Library as a hub for Francophone culture on campus
Part 1: Supporting teaching with open educational resources in French
Open educational resources (OERs) help make education more affordable, accessible and inclusive, because they’re free and published under an open licence that allows them to be adapted and widely distributed without the usual copyright restrictions.
OERs can take many forms: textbooks, online courses, videos, podcasts, case studies, slides, etc.
In keeping with the Transformation 2030 strategic goals (“More connected” pillar) and our own 2025–2030 Strategic Plan, we are committed to supporting the development of open educational resources (OER) in French to mitigate the lack of educational resources in this language, as well as the lack of resources adapted to a Franco-Ontarian setting.
Since 2020, we’ve contributed over $143,000 through our OER grants to fund the creation and adaptation of French-language or bilingual OERs. Over this time, 31 grants have been awarded for French-language or bilingual OERs.
We’ve also been working with eCampus Ontario for several years to encourage the creation and dissemination of OERs. The eCampus Ontario Open Library includes 72 OERs produced by the University of Ottawa, including 33 works in French.
Professors who’d like to incorporate OERs into their teaching but don’t know where to start can turn to the OER by Discipline Guide, a bilingual resource created by the Library that suggests works specific to courses offered at uOttawa. Not only have all suggested resources been peer-reviewed, but the French version of the guide specifically highlights OERs available in French.
The OER by Discipline Guide is — you guessed it! — an OER! You can download it for free through eCampus Ontario.
Moreover, the Library plays a major leadership role nationally in supporting the creation, dissemination and adoption of OERs in French. In this spirit, we organized the Francophone OER Summit in spring 2023, along with the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL). The summit brought together around 30 practitioners, teachers, student leaders and librarians from across Canada.
The following year, as part of the 91st ACFAS conference at uOttawa, we organized a symposium on OERs in Canadian Francophone settings, looking at research and integration in postsecondary educational practice. The symposium also addressed ways to mobilize Francophone professionals across Canada around OERs.
Lastly, the Library is involved with CARL’s Open Education Working Group and contributed to the French version of its National Advocacy Framework for Open Educational Resources in Canada, which identifies OERs in French as one of its three areas of focus.
Don’t miss the next article in this series, on developing collections in French!
For more information
- Read the University of Ottawa Library OER Program: Evaluation Report (April 2025)
- Watch the presentation “La Bibliothèque : votre partenaire pour la recherche et l’enseignement en français” (in French) (September 25, 2025)
- Download the University of Ottawa Library Strategic Plan 2025–2030