Learning Materials for Community College Teaching
Alternatives to Expensive Textbooks and Heavy Backpacks
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"Clearly, the issue of whether to use a textbook is complex, and it is dependent upon course and curricular goals. Students (and colleagues) expect a textbook; yet often, the textbook is not used, except as a reference. Most textbooks are not written with current evidence about best teaching and learning practices in mind, so they may be difficult to integrate into the design and presentation of a course that is based on this evidence. Because many instructors provide detailed online or downloadable notes, it would be a worthwhile exercise to consider whether a textbook is required, or whether other materials could serve its purpose. In the end, the result may be a more thoughtful approach to what is taught, how it is taught, and how student mastery is assessed."
~ M. W. Klymkowsky ~ |
Goals
- Foster sharing, development, and use of public domain learning materials or open educational resources (OER) by community college faculty as alternatives or supplements to proprietary textbooks
- Collect, organize, and disseminate contributions to a list of open and free learning materials suitable for using in community colleges
Background
Visit Introduction to Open Educational Resources for introductory, self-paced tutorials and related resources. The Open Educational Resources movement is part of a global effort to make knowledge available to all. The UNESCO's Virtual University Forum provides an overview about definitions, initiatives, and community-building. See presentations about OER. See OER Blogs for the latest news.
Support for Use of Open Educational Resources on Campus
Use of open content or learning materials on a college campus represents a significant paradigm shift for both faculty and the institution. Visit Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) for a guide.
Online Facilitated Courses
- Development Gateway Foundation offers an Introduction to Open Educational Resources: The Wikiversity online course about Composing free and open online educational resources starting March 3, 2008.
Self-paced tutorials
- Introduction to OER
- The "How Tos" of OER Commons
- Dr. Cable Green Developing a Culture of Sharing and Receiving: Open Educational Resources Feb. 11, 2008 webinar
- OER Movement Timeline
Open Textbook Adoption
| Step | Task |
| ONE | List keywords based on course objectives or student learning outcomes |
| TWO | Search for open content using the keywords |
| THREE | Select appropriate open content |
| FOUR | Organize open content into an open textbook |
| FIVE | Publish and disseminate the open textbook to students |
Also, see How to Toss the Textbook.
Sources of Learning Materials
Many learning materials are freely available from repositories and other Sources of Open Content.
Presentations about OER
Overview of OER (must have iTunes installed)
Create your Video Collection at VodPod
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
2007 - 2010