Building connections between faculty and open educational materials
Aims of the Project
Colleges and universities are working to provide students with free or low cost access to course materials through OER programs – including ours here at City Tech. The fact remains that OER programs are still a pretty new intervention in higher education so the point of this project is to make room for faculty to gain exposure to OERs in a way that promotes critical engagement and increases awareness about the quality and types of OERs available in various subject areas.
Instructors new to OERs may have initial concerns like time and difficulty associated with finding relevant materials, questions over adequate coverage in subject areas, and whether OERs are of comparable quality to traditional course materials, e.g. textbooks.
Strategy
Working from existing course outlines/syllabi from City Tech, I selected open textbooks that correspond directly to curricula of 3 fundamental undergraduate courses with generally high enrollment.
- Introduction to Psychology (PSY 1101) | Spring 2015 enrollment: 1,284 students
- Macroeconomics (ECON 1101) | Spring 2015 enrollment: 892 students
- Introduction to Sociology (SOC 1101) |Spring 2015 enrollment: 667 students
