Community College Open Textbook Project
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CCCOER Nominated for 2010 Bellwether Award sponsored by the Community College Futures Assembly
The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) has been nominated for the 2010 Bellwether Award in the Instructional Programs & Services category. The awards are for proven programs to narrow the achievement gap.
In my conversation with Phillip Morris, Community College Futures Assembly Program Director and Alumni Fellow, Educational Administration and Policy, College of Education, University of Florida, I learned that sustainability and transferability are high on the list of criteria used in selecting winners. These winners will be announced at the end of the Community College Futures Assembly in Orlando, FL, USA, January 23-26.
The award lunch will be followed immediately by a workshop on Open Textbook Adoptions and Open Resource Campus Advocacy. This workshop is available free of charge to community college faculty and staff and is presented by the Florida Distance Learning Consortium and CCCOER.
Here is the entire text of the nomination:
The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) provides community colleges and other 2-year higher education schools with a strong voice in the Open Resources and Open Textbook movements. Prior to the establishment of CCCOER in 2007, these movements were dominated by K-12, four-year colleges/universities, and graduate schools.
Open educational resources are digital learning tools (lessons, exercises, assessments, movies, slideshows, audio files, and more) that are modifiable, modular, and open-licensed. Open textbooks are also modifiable, modular, and open-licensed. They are available to faculty and students at no charge on the Internet and on some hand-held devices and at modest prices in bound copies. Open resources and textbooks improve the quality of education by creating a better fit between learners and materials and by allowing instructors to spend more time teaching and less time creating materials. The beauty of open resources is that instructors can modify them to achieve a near-perfect fit for their students’ abilities, cultures, educational goals, and more. Resources can be created once and re-purposed for all levels from primary to graduate school and in many subjects and geographies. A biographical profile of Louis Pasteur can be written once and then used throughout the world in history, science, and literature classes from 4th grade to medical school. That same profile locked in a $150 all-rights reserved textbook serves only a tiny fraction of learners. Not even the author can reuse an all-rights-reserved profile!
Each community college student spends an average of $900/year on textbooks. Many students take fewer classes or attempt to complete coursework without a textbook. Providing some of these books at little or no cost allows the students more funds for additional classes including those that do not have open textbooks. If a student can save $200 on an economics textbook, he may be able to add a geology class that does not have an open textbook. CCCOER is funded by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the California Digital Marketplace. Additional funding has flowed to our members from the Gates, Lumina, and Maxfield Foundations. We are working on non-profit and for-profit business models that will allow the work to continue without foundation support. CCCOER itself will be self-sustaining by 2011.
Open resources and open textbooks are not without controversy. We are addressing the issues of faculty independence, bookstore revenues/profits, college library and print shop impact, student lack of computers and Internet access, and more. CCCOER is cooperating with the traditional textbook publishers as well as K-12 and 4-year college initiatives. We believe strongly in ‘no enemies, no victims’. This movement serves students, faculty, colleges, taxpayers, authors, and more than 14 other stakeholder groups. CCCOER dispels the following myths about open textbooks: poor quality, out-of-date, relying on author charity, and anonymous crowd-sourced. We are giving presentations monthly at community college conferences, campus store association meetings, board of trustees conferences, and subject-specific conferences including math and economics.
CCCOER has increased open resource demand and supply with workshops, websites, technical assistance, peer reviews, author assistance, and much more. Member colleges now number 97 and our goal is 150 member colleges by 2011. Many of our members have established strong advocacy programs and websites for their faculty and students. CCCOER has identified and displayed more than 250 open textbooks. We have peer-reviewed more than 30 of these books. Our goal is 120 peer reviews by mid 2011. Another major goal is open licensing at least one textbook for each of the 20 top-attendance community college classes.
CCCOER efforts focus on sustainability and transferability of the resources, processes, and skills. In particular, we have developed Quick Start Guides for instructors and authors and we are creating similar guides for libraries, bookstores, and administrators. Membership in the CCCOER online professional network is open to all individuals at no charge. The same is true of attendance at our face-to-face and online workshops. We are archiving these workshops and creating self-paced training. College membership in the CCCOER requires only a commitment by the college to advocate open resources.
In my conversation with Phillip Morris, Community College Futures Assembly Program Director and Alumni Fellow, Educational Administration and Policy, College of Education, University of Florida, I learned that sustainability and transferability are high on the list of criteria used in selecting winners. These winners will be announced at the end of the Community College Futures Assembly in Orlando, FL, USA, January 23-26.
The award lunch will be followed immediately by a workshop on Open Textbook Adoptions and Open Resource Campus Advocacy. This workshop is available free of charge to community college faculty and staff and is presented by the Florida Distance Learning Consortium and CCCOER.
Here is the entire text of the nomination:
The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) provides community colleges and other 2-year higher education schools with a strong voice in the Open Resources and Open Textbook movements. Prior to the establishment of CCCOER in 2007, these movements were dominated by K-12, four-year colleges/universities, and graduate schools.
Open educational resources are digital learning tools (lessons, exercises, assessments, movies, slideshows, audio files, and more) that are modifiable, modular, and open-licensed. Open textbooks are also modifiable, modular, and open-licensed. They are available to faculty and students at no charge on the Internet and on some hand-held devices and at modest prices in bound copies. Open resources and textbooks improve the quality of education by creating a better fit between learners and materials and by allowing instructors to spend more time teaching and less time creating materials. The beauty of open resources is that instructors can modify them to achieve a near-perfect fit for their students’ abilities, cultures, educational goals, and more. Resources can be created once and re-purposed for all levels from primary to graduate school and in many subjects and geographies. A biographical profile of Louis Pasteur can be written once and then used throughout the world in history, science, and literature classes from 4th grade to medical school. That same profile locked in a $150 all-rights reserved textbook serves only a tiny fraction of learners. Not even the author can reuse an all-rights-reserved profile!
Each community college student spends an average of $900/year on textbooks. Many students take fewer classes or attempt to complete coursework without a textbook. Providing some of these books at little or no cost allows the students more funds for additional classes including those that do not have open textbooks. If a student can save $200 on an economics textbook, he may be able to add a geology class that does not have an open textbook. CCCOER is funded by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the California Digital Marketplace. Additional funding has flowed to our members from the Gates, Lumina, and Maxfield Foundations. We are working on non-profit and for-profit business models that will allow the work to continue without foundation support. CCCOER itself will be self-sustaining by 2011.
Open resources and open textbooks are not without controversy. We are addressing the issues of faculty independence, bookstore revenues/profits, college library and print shop impact, student lack of computers and Internet access, and more. CCCOER is cooperating with the traditional textbook publishers as well as K-12 and 4-year college initiatives. We believe strongly in ‘no enemies, no victims’. This movement serves students, faculty, colleges, taxpayers, authors, and more than 14 other stakeholder groups. CCCOER dispels the following myths about open textbooks: poor quality, out-of-date, relying on author charity, and anonymous crowd-sourced. We are giving presentations monthly at community college conferences, campus store association meetings, board of trustees conferences, and subject-specific conferences including math and economics.
CCCOER has increased open resource demand and supply with workshops, websites, technical assistance, peer reviews, author assistance, and much more. Member colleges now number 97 and our goal is 150 member colleges by 2011. Many of our members have established strong advocacy programs and websites for their faculty and students. CCCOER has identified and displayed more than 250 open textbooks. We have peer-reviewed more than 30 of these books. Our goal is 120 peer reviews by mid 2011. Another major goal is open licensing at least one textbook for each of the 20 top-attendance community college classes.
CCCOER efforts focus on sustainability and transferability of the resources, processes, and skills. In particular, we have developed Quick Start Guides for instructors and authors and we are creating similar guides for libraries, bookstores, and administrators. Membership in the CCCOER online professional network is open to all individuals at no charge. The same is true of attendance at our face-to-face and online workshops. We are archiving these workshops and creating self-paced training. College membership in the CCCOER requires only a commitment by the college to advocate open resources.
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