Open Education 2017

The OER movement is growing in Massachusetts! A statewide initiative, funded by the federal TAACCCT grant, kicked off last year for the Massachusetts community colleges. While many of the 15 community colleges had an existing OER project, this new initiative has created a truly collaborative process where faculty work together to adopt, adapt and if necessary, build, high quality OER materials for courses that are common across the state.

Led by Sue and Jody of Northern Essex Community College, this project began with the development of an OER council that included representatives from each of the community college. The council's focus is to promote an open philosophy and to encourage collaboration on OER adoption and development across the state. Go Open mini-grants are the council's main project, scaled from NECC's Adopt Open initiative. These mini-grants solicit proposals from faculty seeking to "Go Open" in their courses. The council also supports statewide events which promote and provide training on OER pedagogy.

Sue and Jody will share the model of the initiative including their role as consultants to the other colleges, the Go Open mini-grant proposal written by the council, the materials created and updates on the project. The presentation will also include information on the benefits and challenges to working with 15 very different and independent community colleges and share some of the unique ideas developed through the collaboration. And, of course, all the materials that go with this work!