Welcome to OER @ Cuyamaca College!
Welcome to Open Education Resources (OER) at Cuyamaca College's official webpage.
OER offers faculty the opportunity to be adopters, curators, and creators of knowledge that meet the needs of our dynamic and diverse students, reduce and eliminate financial barriers to ensure student access, and further promote student equity and success by using culturally responsive pedagogical materials and practices.
Please use the left-hand navigation bar to learn more about workshops, funding, faculty highlights, zero textbook cost, low textbook costs, monthly newsletters, and external resources.
And continue reading out to learn about who can help with you OER, definition of OER, and where you can learn more!
"Who on campus can help me with OER?"
Peers
- Peers in your department who have already adopted OER can explain why they selected OER over costly publisher textbooks and course materials, where they found such materials, and how they use the materials in their courses.
Campus' OER Coordinator
- Professor Karla Gutierrez, Professor of Spanish, is the Campus' OER Coordinator for Academic Years 2024-2025 and 2025-2026.
Past OER Coordinators
- Dr. Josh Franco, Associate Professor of Political Science, was the Campus' OER Coordinator for Academic Years 2022-2024.
Past ASCCC Campus OER Liaisons
- Karla Guiterrez, Assistant Professor of Spanish and Chair of World Languages Department 2019-2020
- Josh Franco, Assistant Professor of Political Science, 2020-2021
What is the definition of OER?
According to Creative Commons Wiki, "Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are either (a) in the public domain or (b) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities."
What are the 5Rs?
The 5Rs are defined as:
- Retain – make, own, and control a copy of the resource
- Revise – edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource
- Remix – combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material to create something new
- Reuse – use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly
- Redistribute – share copies of your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others
Why OER at Cuyamaca College?
- In 2019, during the Accreditation process, the college issued it's "Institutional Self-Evaluation Report in support of the Accreditation Reaffirmation".
- In this report, it outlines Project #2: Expand Open Educational Resources/ Low-Cost Course Materials, and explains: "Cuyamaca College is committed to improving access and success for all students. In addition, as part of its guided pathways work, Cuyamaca College is exploring ways to “keep students on the path” by eliminating barriers to students’ successful course completion. As part of this work, the College has identified the expansion of open educational resources and low-cost course materials as a significant priority for the next four years. While initial efforts in specific disciplines and among individual instructors have begun, the College aims to broaden its OER and low-cost textbook offerings to ensure students have access to high-quality, affordable texts and materials in order to succeed in their courses."
- To support this effort, the campus OER Liaison serves as an "advocate" and takes "an active role in increasing local OER awareness, adoption, and support".
Why is OER important?
- OER is important because it lowers or eliminates costs for students, ensures that you can organize content around your course (as opposed to organizing your course around existing, costly, content), and give you and your students the opportunity to co-create education resources for future students.
What are examples of OER?
- Textbooks
- Curated readers packets (i.e. a collection of peer-reviewed, open access journal articles)
- Peer-reviewed, open access journal articles
- Open access test question banks
- Open access assignments, discussion prompts, and rubrics
- Open access images and videos
Where can I learn more about OER?
- Academic Senate for California Community College's (ASCCC's) Open Education Resources Initiative (OERI) website has webinars, events, resources, and information for OER developers.
- Community College Consortium for OER "promotes the awareness and adoption of open educational policies, practices, and resources."
- OER Commons "offers a comprehensive infrastructure for curriculum experts and instructors at all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners."
- MERLOT "provides access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers."