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About Open Educational Resources
What are Open Educational Resources?
- OER are freely accessible and openly licensed resources that can be used in any learning environment. This includes study resources, assignments, journals, online databases, and course textbooks.
- OER textbooks, most of which are written and peer-reviewed by faculty, are designed to be like traditional course texts. OER versions, however, are openly licensed - meaning they can be freely accessed online and legally modified to suit specific course needs.
- For those who prefer hard copies, low-cost print versions are made available for purchase by students, faculty, and libraries (usually $5 - $40).
- While OER resources span all disciplines, emphasis has been placed on creating materials for common course offerings in higher education: Biology, Chemistry, US History, Algebra, Statistics, and Psychology, to name a few.
Rising Cost of Textbooks
- According to a recent study by the Government Accountability Office, the price of college textbooks rose 82% between 2002 and 2013 -- roughly three times the national rate of inflation
- The average student in higher education spends $1,200 per year on course textbooks and supplies. Relative to the national average for community colleges, that's nearly 40% of tuition costs
- A recent survey indicated that 7 out of 10 students in higher education have opted not to purchase course books each semester because of high pricing
- Reports have made it clear that the high, often unexpected costs of study materials are increasingly affecting student retention
Benefits of Using OER
- Using OER resources can dramatically decrease the cost of education for your students. In addition to making educational materials more affordable, OER can be a cost-effective means for increasing course offerings at NCC.
- OER textbooks give faculty a new level of choice in terms of designing their coursework around readings. Published under various creative commons licenses, many OER texts can be legally edited or modified by faculty to suit their needs. Want to use a section from one book and a chapter from another? No problem, put them together (with attribution, of course) and you can give this version out to your class.
- Incorporating OER resources into your courses can help develop NCC's reputation as a cost-effective, cutting-edge educational institution.
OER at Norwalk
- Norwalk Campus is uniquely positioned to take advantage of OER resource for use in the classroom. Serving higher education's most diverse student population, community colleges like CT State Community College - Norwalk have the most to gain from incorporating these resources (notably textbooks) into classroom instruction.
- Norwalk Campus Library is committed to helping any Norwalk faculty take full advantage of these great resources. Library staff are available to help in the searching and incorporating OER materials into your classroom. As always, the library can order and host print copies of these texts on reserve for your students.
