OER Center for California

Goals of the OER Center of California are:

* Establish an Advisory Group comprised of representatives from colleges and organizations committed to promoting OER in community

* Identify sources of adequate grant funding to accomplish the pilot project

* Design and implement a model for campus OER centers that promote and support the development and use of OER that is student-centered, meaningful, pedagogically sound and fully accessible by all students

* Design and implement a model for campus OER centers that promote and support the development and use of OER instructional materials.

* Develop a community college professional development course that introduces faculty, staff, and college course developers to the concept, content, creation, and production methodologies that enable OER to be offered to students in community college classes

* Create an OER information repository to serve as the single point of contact for information about community college OER, including working in the public domain, OER courses and course materials, research and production processes, and professional resources for creating and repurposing OER.

* Develop a reporting system (survey) by which participating districts can report to the Chancellor’s Office of the California Community Colleges, upon request, on all of the
following: (a) The number of courses in the system that use OER; (b) the number of faculty who develop OER for other faculty in the system to use in their classes; (c) the number students who use OER in their courses; (d) The quality of faculty and student experiences with OER compared to traditional courses; (e) The grades earned in OER courses; (f) The cost of OER course materials compared to non-OER materials.

The advantages of using and developing open educational resources include:

* lower educational costs for students
* iterative and rapid feedback loop
* professional recognition
* online medium allows for rich media
* modifiability
* adaptability to learning styles
* currency