Interested in learning more about OER? CCC has resources to help faculty find and adopt OERs for their courses. In many cases, complete textbooks already exist with ancillary materials. Sometimes faculty choose to create their own textbook by piecing together chapters of different OER works. The best place to get started is our OER LibGuide linked below.

Faculty can also make an appointment with Brooke Ramos (OER Librarian) or Stephanie Coffman (OERI Liaison) to discuss OER options for your course.

The Clovis Community College OER LibGuide is a one-stop shop for all you need to know about OER. You can find information on finding, adopting, and creating OERs.

Faculty can self-enroll in the Clovis Community College OER Training Course on Canvas. This course is not facilitated and is self-paced; faculty can enroll at any time and complete the course any time. Once you have completed the course, you will earn a certificate of completion.

Course Description: This course serves as an introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER), providing faculty with new options for selecting textbooks and other resources so they can make the best decisions for their students. At the end of this course successful participants will be able to:

1. Properly identify the Creative Commons (CC) license on a resource and describe how this resource can and cannot be used.
2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of open resources using current research in the field as evidence.
3. Research, analyze, and review repositories of open resources.
4. Effectively search for open resources and post reviews in an OER repository.
5. Create an open resource by remixing multiple existing resources and designate a license to this new resource based on the licenses of multiple resources use.

Self-enroll in the OER Training Course

Clovis Community College is beginning the process of soliciting requests for proposals for the OER Award Program. The OER Award Program will provide incentives to faculty members to adopt, create and update OER materials for their courses. All current, full-time and part-time, faculty will be invited to submit proposals.

Applications will open for submissions on October 30, 2023 and are due Monday, November 13, 2023. Awardees will be notified before the end of the Fall 2023 semester. The latest, up-to-date information on this funding opportunity as well as the application can be found on the OER Advisory Committee’s SharePoint site.

The reduction in costs for students is a major benefit of OERs but is not the only one. OER course materials are much more flexible than commercial textbooks, allowing the instructor to customize the materials to meet their specific student learning outcomes and their diverse student community.

Some advantages of OERs include:

Access: All students have immediate access to their course materials and retain access after the course has ended.

Adaptability: You can start with existing OER material and modify it to tailor the content for your specific course. You can start with existing OER material and modify it to tailor the content for your specific course or you can combine multiple existing OERs into a new work.

Scalability: OERs are easy to distribute widely with little or no cost.

Enhancement of regular course content: For example, multimedia material such as videos can accompany text. Presenting information in multiple formats may help students to learn the material more easily.

Quick Circulation: Information may be disseminated rapidly (especially when compared to information published in textbooks or journals, which may take months or even years to become available). Quick availability of material may increase the timeliness and/or relevance of the material being presented.

Continually Improved Resources: Unlike textbooks and other static sources of information, OERs can be improved quickly through direct editing by users or through solicitation and incorporation of user feedback. Instructors can take an existing OER, adapt it for a class, and make the modified OER available for others to use.

Open Educational Resources (OERs) are teaching, learning and research materials that are in the public domain or have an open license (see above for a more detailed definition).

Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) is a class/degree/pathway that does not pass any cost for textbooks on to the student.

While the two are often used interchangeably, they each describe different aspects of course materials. ZTC describes only the cost of the materials passed on to students, while OER describes the licensing of the course materials. The image below summarizes the intersections between these two, with the vertical axis being the license (OER or not OER) and the horizontal axis being the cost (ZTC or not ZTC). Let’s consider a few examples:

OER and ZTC (Green): Usually, courses that use an OER textbook are also ZTC, because they use a digital textbook that is free to access. Often a print version of the book can also be sold at the bookstore, but it is optional.

OER and not ZTC (Blue): In some cases, students need to purchase a printed copy of the OER or purchase access to an openly licensed homework platform. For example, STEM courses with a lab often require a printed lab manual that students use to collect and analyze their data.

Copyrighted and ZTC (Yellow): The internet is full of resources that are copyrighted, but free to access (e.g., most of the videos on YouTube). You can use these in your course for free, but they are not OER. Additionally, the library or school may purchase access to copyrighted materials that you can use in your courses. These materials are free to the student, ZTC, but not OER.

Copyrighted and not ZTC (Gray): Traditional course textbooks and materials fall in this category. The cost of the materials is passed on to the student and the materials are not openly licensed.

OER and ZTC by Wiley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Consider serving on the OER Advisory Committee or joining us for our monthly meetings on the first Tuesday of every month at 3:00pm in AC2 276.

We currently have a team of faculty working with the AAC&U Institute on OER to increase OER awareness and build a sustainable OER presence on campus. If you are interested in joining, please contact our Team Lead, Derek Dormedy (derek.dormedy@cloviscollege.edu).

Most OER textbooks and materials are shared under a Creative Commons License. Creative Commons (CC) Licenses are an extension of copyright that empowers creators to decide how they want their works to be used by others, including allowing for the 5 Rs discussed above. In contrast, copyrighted works can only be used if you have permission or your use falls under the limitations and exceptions of copyright. All Creative Commons licenses require Attribution, ensuring that the authors always receive credit for their work. As you become a user of OERs, it is important to include the correct attributions for each OER that you might use.

Interested in learning more? The resources below from the OER Advisory Committee delve deeper into the types of CC licenses and how to use them.

Creative Commons Licenses

Adapting Works from the Creative Commons

Additional Resources

Creative Commons Textbook

Best Practices for Attributions

Creative Commons FAQs