OER: Open Educational Resources
OER at MCCC
- OER Quick Guide for MCCC FacultyThis pdf is a quick overview of how faculty can make a difference by using OER and other affordable alternatives to the traditional textbook. The pdf includes six "best bets" - good starting points for identifying open education materials.
- Awards for MCCC Faculty (2018)The Center for Faculty Development and the Division of Libraries and Academic Support have partnered to develop a program to encourage and support faculty collaboration in adopting open or low/no-cost educational materials for high-enrollment courses. This program will provide monetary awards for exploration, development, and implementation of OER materials into existing courses. These awards are made possible by funds from Achieving the Dream’s Leah Meyer Austin Award.
What are Open Educational Resources?
Reuse • Remix • Rework • Redistribute
"Open Educational Resources" (OERs) are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation." (UNESCO).
Why promote OER?
Improve Access, Boost Success
Many students rent their textbook from the bookstore or compete with other students for access to the library's reserve copy. For those that do purchase textbooks, many attempt to regain their money by selling the books back to the bookstore or online after the course is over. OER and other low/no cost alternatives can get learning materials into students hands from day one.
Traditionally published textbooks and educational materials are subject to copyright restrictions, which do not allow them to be modified or reused in other contexts. With OER, students and instructors can re-use and re-purpose the materials not just during the class, but in the future as well.
Reduce Student Financial Burden
Textbooks can be prohibitively expensive for our students, especially those who rely on grants and student loans to attend. A Florida Virtual Campus study published in 2018 found that the high costs of textbooks led the student respondents to the following outcomes:
64.2% did not purchase a required textbook
42.8% took fewer courses
40.5% did not register for a specific course
35.6% reported earning a poor grade
22.9% dropped a course
These numbers actually represented a slight improvement over a Spring 2016 survey, owing to staff and faculty strategies to reduce textbook costs. College faculty around the nation are adopting OER in their courses, improving student experience and success.
- 2018 Student Textbook and Course Materials SurveyDuring March and April 2018, more than 21,000 students participated in a Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey conducted by the Florida Virtual Campus’s (FLVC) Office of Distance Learning and Student Services. The survey examined textbook affordability and acquisition at Florida’s public higher education institutions. Previous surveys were conducted in 2010, 2012, and 2016. In this survey, students were asked to use their recent personal experiences to provide insight on how the cost of textbooks and course materials impact their education, purchasing behaviors, academic completion and success, the study aids they find most beneficial to their learning, and their use of financial aid to address these costs.
- Open Access Content/Open Educational Resources in Academic Libraries (December 2020)LibraryJournal survey on how U.S. academic libraries are curating open access (OA) content collections and open educational resources (OER).
- COVID-19 and Libraries: E-Books and Intellectual Property IssuesCongressional Research Service Report
- Pandemic Amplifies Trouble with Restrictive Licensing and E-Textbooks“Approximately 85% of existing course textbooks are simply unavailable to libraries in any other format than print..”
- Survey: Textbook Costs Having Greater Impact On Students During Pandemic"An affordable textbook campaign surveyed more than 5,000 students and showed the cost of textbooks is skyrocketing due to the coronavirus pandemic."
Guide License
Some content in this guide has been adapted from other OER guides including;
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library
- University of Pittsburgh Libraries licensed under Creative Commons-Attribute 4.0
- Portland Community College Library licensed under Creative Commons-Attribute-Non-Commercial 3.0,
- Virginia Tech Libraries licensed under Creative Commons-Attribute 4.0
This content in this guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.