March 2021 Newsletter

Greetings! As the Open Educational Resources Liaison, it is my role to share communications from the ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI) with you.

Please read on to learn about upcoming events that are open to all and an opportunity for faculty to play a role in increasing OER consideration and adoption by others in their discipline.

If I can assist you in your considering OER– or answer any OER-related questions, please let me know.

ASCCC OERI Wants You

The ASCCC OERI is still seeking faculty for various roles. While faculty with OER experience are preferred, we are prepared to support faculty who are new to OER and interested in playing a leadership role.

The OERI is currently seeking faculty to review OER in a number of disciplines and Discipline Leads for Spring 2021. If you are interested in any of these opportunities – or in OER work more generally – please submit an application. If your discipline is one that we are not currently focusing on, your application lets us know not only that you are interested, but that faculty in your discipline are interested.

Additional information about the Discipline Lead role is available on the application page.

OER for Your Consideration

Each month the OERI plans to highlight OER for your consideration. Presently, the products from RFP II are under review, but many of the ASCCC OERI RFP 2020 – Draft Products are available for faculty to access and consider. If you have any feedback or questions about any of the resources, please let us know.

This month, we’d like to highlight two of the resources from RFP 2020 that are currently under review. Both are housed in LibreTexts, a platform that is designed to facilitate faculty customization of a resource.

Race and Ethnic Relations in the U.S.: An Intersectional Approach – this OER is intended to an appropriate text for C-ID SOCI 150 (Introduction to Race and Ethnicity) and C-ID SJS 110 (Introduction to Social Justice). The authors describe the resource as follows: This open text was compiled by six diverse, community college sociology faculty from Long Beach City College, Cerritos College, and Rancho Santiago College. With an eye on social justice and intersectionality, the text provides a sociological analysis of the history, demographics, and contemporary experiences of the following race-ethnic groups: African Americans, Asian American Pacific Islanders, Euro Americans, Latinx, Native Americans, Middle Eastern Americans, and immigrants. This text is suitable for a sociology course on race and ethnic relations or a social justice studies introductory course.

Resources for Botany/Plant Diversity and Ecology (C-ID BIOL 155) –

Botany (Ha, Morrow, and Algiers)

A Photographic Atlas for Botany (Morrow)

OERI Weekly Webinars – March 2021

OERI Weekly Webinars are scheduled for Fridays at 10:30 am. The ASCCC OERI will provide automated captioning for all webinars. If you would like to request live human closed-captioning for any of our offerings, please contact us by e-mail at least 10 business days in advance.

OERI Webinars are intended for a diverse audience. We hope you will all join us! Please share with your colleagues.

Friday, March 5, 10:30 am – 11:30 am: New OER Resource Showcase

New OER! The ASCCC OERI is pleased to share openly licensed texts developed by teams of California Community College faculty in 2020. Join us to learn about new OER in Race, Ethnicity, and Social Justice, Botany, and Information Literacy.

Friday, March 12, 10:30 am – 11:30 am: Clearing Up Confusion: OER, ZTC, and Fair Use

Understanding how you can use resources based on their copyright is important when selecting sources of course content. This webinar will illustrate the differences between Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) and OER and describe how Fair Use factors into both ZTC and OER.

Friday, March 19, 10:30 am – 11:30 am: OER and Computer Science

What OER are available for the computer science discipline – and other related fields. Join the OERI’s Computer Science Discipline Lead for an overview of the available OER – and a discussion of your OER needs.

Friday, March 26, 10:30 am – 11:30 am: Open Forum

Questions? Ideas? Join us in this Open Forum where you direct the conversation.

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Josh Franco, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Political Science @ Cuyamaca College: http://www.ipolisci.com/

Open Political Science: https://www.opolisci.com/

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