OER is growing in Massachusetts! A new statewide OER initiative, funded by the federal TAACCCT grant, kicked off this year for the Massachusetts community colleges. While many of the 15 community colleges had an existing OER project, this new initiative seeks to develop a collaborative process where faculty can work together to adopt, adapt and if necessary, build, high quality OER materials for courses that are common across the state.
Led by Sue Tashjian and Jody Carson of Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, MA, this project began with the development of an OER council that included representation from each of the 15 community college campuses. The council's main focus is to promote an Open philosophy and to encourage collaboration on OER adoption and development across the state. Go Open grants are the council's main project, scaled from NECC's Adopt Open initiative. These mini-grants solicit proposals from faculty across the state seeking to "Go Open" in their courses. The council also supports statewide events which promote and provide training on OER pedagogy and is selecting a common OER repository where materials can easily be found and shared.
Sue and Jody will share the model of the initiative they developed including their role as consultants to the other colleges, the Go Open grant proposal written by the council, the resources collected so far and an update on the project. The presentation will also include information on the benefits and challenges to working with 15 very different and independent community colleges and share some of the unique ideas developed through the collaboration. And, of course, all the materials that go with this work!
