Join us for this webinar to hear how colleges are transitioning from individual faculty OER course adoptions to entire departments and OER degree pathways. OER leaders at colleges who have reached critical mass in their implementation will share best practices for sustaining faculty engagement, student involvement, project funding, and institutional commitment to OER adoption for the enhancement of teaching and learning.

Our featured speakers are both longtime community college leaders in the OER movement at regional and district levels. They will engage each other in discussions on the themes mentioned above and invite questions from webinar attendees.

Open Education Week is an ideal time to hear from our community members who are leading open education initiatives on their campuses and across their states to reduce costs for students and empower faculty to enhance learning in their classrooms. We will hear from two OER librarians and a faculty member who are successfully growing awareness and adoption of open educational resources. They will share the successes and challenges of coordinating statewide efforts and influencing their colleagues to adopt OER in their courses.

OER programs provide an opportunity for students to earn a certificate or associates degree without incurring the cost of textbooks for their courses. This can dramatically reduce the cost of attendance and has been estimated at 25% or more savings*. Most OER programs are developed to serve the neediest students who may otherwise have to defer college or take fewer courses due to prohibitive cost. Reaching the students who could most benefit most from enrolling in OER courses can prove to be a challenge in of itself. We will hear from speakers who have developed successful strategies at their colleges to create awareness and encourage underrepresented students to enroll in OER degree programs targeted at their academic success.

We will start the lesson discussing what open educational resources are. Please watch the video first and read through the content. It is important to understand the concept of open educational resources as it will be the base for the rest of the modules.

Why do open educational resources matter? What is the point of using OER? Below are some of the benefits of using open educational resources that I have seen while working with OER over the past several years.

A workbook for administrators looking to have a coordinated OER implementation in their district, building, or target group; includes questions to answer and activities to help guide the work. This is a remix of 11 other OER resources, along with original work.

A brief video where OER experts give their reasons for working in the field of Open Educational Resources. Primary reasons include empowering teachers, equalizing access to education, reducing teachers' worries about copyright, reducing educational costs, and facilitating the open flow of information.