OpenEd20

With the COVID-19 crisis, there is an urgent need for digital course materials to fill the gaps left by publishers’ textbooks, which are often not available as e-versions, either through the campus library’s reserve collection or otherwise. To address this need, community colleges in California and elsewhere are turning to Open Educational Resources (OER)—including open textbooks and ancillary resources—to build out their online course content. Through open licensing that allows faculty to integrate OER into their course management systems and to adapt the resources to meet learners where they are, these colleges and their faculty are finding the flexibility needed for emergency remote courses. At the same time, they are able to address requirements for culturally relevant, engaging materials for their learners in the online setting.

This session will present the findings from a Michelson 20MM Foundation Spark Grant study conducted by ISKME to explore how community colleges are utilizing OER to support the shift to online and remote learning in response to COVID-19. The session will feature presentation and discussion by Jodie Steeley, Fresno City College, on her college’s response to the COVID crises through the use of OER, and learnings from Fresno City faculty and student use cases that demonstrate implementation of the college’s OER-supported model for emergency remote learning.

Learning Outcomes:
Participants will understand and be able to identify tools related to: 1. Practical strategies for using OER to build online courses in course management systems and with other tools in the postsecondary context; 2. Considerations for utilizing OER to meet the needs for more inclusive, culturally relevant pedagogy in the online and emergency remote setting; 3. Policy and professional learning supports for utilizing OER for emergency remote and online learning in the postsecondary setting.