Dear Colleagues,
We are excited to announce OpenCI. OpenCI is an initiative aimed at increasing the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) at CI. OER consists of “teaching and learning materials that are freely available online for everyone to use, whether you are an instructor, student, or self-learner” (OER Commons, 2016). The use of OER has been shown to increase students persistence in courses by reducing the cost of college and making materials available on the first day of class. They also help faculty by allowing for permissible printing, copying, reusing and remixing of materials. Most importantly, our students are asking for high quality, affordable and readily available learning materials. Please see the resource list below for more information about OER.
Teaching & Learning Innovations would like to support faculty at CI in finding high quality OER. To this end, we are writing a grant proposal linked to AB 798, that will allow us to provide stipends to faculty interested in reviewing OER materials for adoption. We are currently collecting names of interested faculty to support the grant application. If funded, we will be able to support faculty and provide resources needed to effectively review OER materials in their discipline. We invite teams of faculty working on a common course to apply as well. Each participating faculty will receive a stipend and ongoing support as they integrate the materials into their courses. The amount of the stipend will depend on funding and number of sections.
If you are interested in participating or learning more, please complete the linked form. We recognize that you may not be able to complete all questions on the form. It is ok to skip questions if you don’t have the answer. When we get word about funding, we will contact all faculty that completed the form with an invitation to participate. I know this is a busy time of year and greatly appreciate your taking the time to consider participating in this effort.
Warmly,
Jill Leafstedt
OER Resource List
- Open Content Definition
- California Open Online Library for Education
- Open Textbooks reviewed for Top 50 enrolled courses
- OpenStax College (a collection of highly-rated open textbooks for higher education)
- BCCampus (a finding guide to open textbooks)
____________________________________________________________________
Jill Leafstedt, Ph.D.
Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Innovations
Senior Academic Technology Officer
Professor of Education
CSU Channel Islands
email: jill.leafstedt@csuci.edu
Professor of Education
CSU Channel Islands
email: jill.leafstedt@csuci.edu
