Expanding Access to Education Through Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of efforts to reduce the cost of textbooks for students at Hostos Community College through various Open Educational Resource (OER) initiatives and describes how these efforts are supported college-wide. It begins with a brief definition of Open Access and an overview of current research showing how the high cost of commercially produced textbooks creates barriers to academic success for community college students. It then describes several initiatives at Hostos, designed to replace commercial, high-cost textbooks with open textbooks and other Open Educational Resources—including developing an entire Early-Childhood Education Associate’s degree program using only open resources as required texts. The chapter goes on to discuss the challenges and benefits of creating and adopting open resources for courses—from revisiting learning outcomes to building institutional support for this sometimes difficult work. Faculty who have adopted open resources and the librarians and educational technologists who support them have developed a dedicated community, and the values of access and equity which are central to the college’s mission are well-served by these initiatives.