“Students can’t learn from materials they can’t afford.” – Nicole Allen, director of Open Education at SPARC, a nonprofit organization supporting accessible education.
As college students, we strive to learn all that we can, at the lowest possible cost. School is expensive, life is expensive. Sometimes finding the right textbook is difficult. Finding the right resources can be frustrating.
So how can we effectively learn and grow in this academic environment?
The answer is simple: Know your resources.
LBCC strives to make an impact on its students, supporting them in a number of ways throughout their college experience. They provide a substantial amount of resources that might not be apparent at first glance.
Among these supports that benefit the learning process are Open Educational Resources, or OER’s. These are free instructional materials for all students, with LBCC funding this program to assist students facing financial challenges.
Colleen Sanders, the college’s OER and course materials affordability faculty, described the importance of these resources.
“Students assume that, if it is free on the internet, it’s an OER,” Sanders said. “But they have open licenses, which means that when a faculty member finds a really cool textbook from somewhere else, they can customize and revise it to make it their own — exactly what LB students need for this course.”
The materials many LBCC students are provided in class have been revised, remixed, or reused, tailoring the class to their needs.
For example, OER’s reside on the internet. They are usually provided as links through your class’s syllabus or Canvas shell. Anyone (even non-students) can access them directly with no login required.
And the best part? They are supplied at no-cost.
The OER program at LBCC first manifested in the library 10 years ago and has since saved students more than $6 million in textbook costs, according to the college. Around 90 faculty members have participated in the textbook affordability program.
To make this happen, the college supports an OER faculty position, a textbook affordability steering committee, a textbook affordability strategic plan, the library, an OER grant program, and coordinates with its independent campus store.
“In 2015,” Sanders noted, “the (Higher Education Coordinating Commission) funded a two-year OER librarian position at LBCC on behalf of the Oregon Community College Distance Learning Association. In 2017, the HECC reallocated the original funding via legislation to form the statewide OER program.”
Understanding the availability of resources as a student is important, and OER is a valuable way to gain hold of new information in classes.
In a recent survey sent to LB students by email from the Student Leadership Council, around 48% of polled students said they use open educational resources, but 22% do not know about or utilize them. And 20% were unsure whether they used them in a course or not.
In addition, about 10% of students do not know about OER’s, or do not use them currently.
For more information on OER’s, go online to LBCC’s Textbooks and Course Materials page.
