In an
effort to lower the cost of course materials for their students, colleges and
universities are ramping up initiatives to create their own open educational
resources (OER), sometimes with funding and assistance from outside
organizations.
The biggest
project to date, the OER Degree Initiative launched by Achieving the Dream
(ATD), a network of 38 community colleges in 13 states, received a lot of
attention when it was announced in June. Many of ATD’s schools had individually
dabbled in creating open materials on a small scale. By collaborating, though, ATD
was able to secure $9.8 million from a group of major foundations to support
development of free digital courseware for entire degree programs.
In Canada,
the provincial government of Saskatchewan has set aside $250,000 to help
produce nine open textbooks and coursepacks for students at the University of
Regina, University of Saskatchewan, and Saskatchewan Polytechnic. One of the
books in development—on the topic of engineering economics—is intended to
supplant a traditionally published book that retailed new for $202.
It will
take a year before that book is ready for class use. Saskatchewan and ATD, like
others pursuing OER endeavors, are obviously counting on their initial
investments to pay off over a long time, with little expenditure needed to keep
the resources up to date.
California
State University Monterey Bay and Monterey Peninsula College took a slightly different route for their joint degree program in sustainable hospitality management. The
two schools partnered with the Monterey County Hospitality Association to gain
support from the private sector. Local companies involved in tourism have
contributed funds toward course and OER development. Students enrolled in the
program obtain their free materials digitally through the campus library.
