Open Educational Resources (OER)

Announcing an OER Community of Practice!

Just Announced!

The Library Initiative for Equitable and Affordable Learning (LIEAL) invites Mt. SAC faculty to participate in our Open Education Community of Practice (CoP) during the Spring 2022 semester.  This is an opportunity for Mt. SAC faculty to join with other OER enthusiasts to learn, share, and develop skills and practices that can help increase student equity and achievement on campus! This opportunity is being funded through a SEAP mini-grant. If you are selected to participate in our CoP, your time for attending and facilitating meetings will be compensated with a non-instructional hourly stipend.

LIEAL is looking for 20 participants to fill 2 cohorts of 10.  Here is what you can expect if you are selected to participate:

• Have an increased level of familiarity and confidence to use open educational resources in their classes  
• Identify two equity-minded practices to implement in your classrooms in conjunction with their OER efforts

What's a community of practice?

A community of practice is a group of people who share an interest, craft, and/or profession and that creates its own knowledge and resources. According to Wenger (2010), “Communities of practice must consist of both participation (conversations, activities, reflections) and reification (artifacts, documents, processes, methods) for meaning-making to occur.” (a) Communities of practice allow faculty autonomy around what the group will discuss and to self-create products of learning (i.e. shared practice) that will benefit others on campus. Participants will identify and assess the needs of potential members of the community, create goals creatively, explore new practices, and together, generate resources to benefit the community at large.  

Goals

The goals of the project are to: 

1. Increase Mt. SAC faculty confidence in finding, selecting, and adopting a textbook with an open license. 
2. Increase Mt. SAC faculty confidence in applying open pedagogy in their courses. 
3. Increase number of course sections that have zero class materials costs for students, and thus day-one access to course materials for ALL students enrolled in a course, regardless of student’s ability to pay for course materials. 

Dates

The CoP will run from late February/early March to May 2022.  There will be regular, biweekly meetings among cohorts via Zoom.  Zoom details will be shared once the cohorts are finalized.  

• Cohort 1: 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month, starting March 9, from 12:00-1:00 pm
• Cohort 2:  2nd and 4th Thursday of the month, starting March 10, 2022, from 12:00-1:00 pm:

Eligibility

All current faculty at Mt. SAC are encouraged to participate. 

Apply Today!

• OER CoP Application Form (due February 4, 2022). We will inform those that are selected to participate in early February 2022.  

Questions?

If you have any questions, please contact LIEAL at lieal@mtsac.edu or visit our LIEAL LibGuide.

References

Wenger E. (2010) Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems: The Career of a Concept. In: Blackmore C. (eds) Social Learning Systems and Communities of Practice. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-133-2_11