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Archive for December, 2010
Evergreen College hosted outstanding CCCOER quarterly meeting December 9
December 18, 2010By Monica Sain
The CCCOER December Quarterly Meeting began the way all meetings should – with a hefty dose of bagels, cream cheese, smoked salmon, sliced vegetables and fruit, and beverages (non-alcoholic, of course!) Approximately 15 people attended in person while about 30 attended online. Lively presentations, emphasizing the benefits of open textbooks lent themselves to lively questions and conversation. Presenters from Texas, Washington and California colleges discussed the best practices at their respective institutions.
Leslie Williams, Learning Disabilities Specialist at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, California, gave the group a very warm welcome, plus discussed the challenges faced when attempting to encourage colleges (especially faculty) to adopt open educational resources. She also reminded the group how important it is to advocate for the adoption of these resources, as they provide a comprehensive education at a low cost for students.
Next, Angela Secrest, Director of Library Support at Houston Community College, discussed various ways to encourage community colleges to adopt open educational resources. For instance, she mentioned the importance of educating faculty about the benefits of using these resources, as well as dispelling the pervasive myths about open educational resources.
Jacqui Cain, an English instructor at Tacoma Community College, gave a preview of the open educational resource for basic skills English students she is currently developing. Sharing her project via CCC Confer, she demonstrated how she makes Victorian English literature (and even grammar!) interesting and accessible to her students (yes, even the non-English majors). Sidebar: This blog’s author will be sure to utilize this resource in future teaching and tutoring endeavors.
Then came an update on the CCCOER 2010 survey, led by Geoff Cain (assisted by Randy Fisher, who came all the way from Canada to take on the duty of master of ceremonies!).
Clare Middleton-Detzner, Research Associate at The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), wrapped up the meeting with an overview of her research, which answered questions about what motivates college faculty and students to use open educational resources. Una Daly of Foothill De Anza Community College District showed a video of students who participated in the ISKME research.
Over the remaining comestibles, attendees networked after the event. In other words, not only was the quarterly meeting an opportunity to learn more about best practices in OER, but it also provided a chance for CCCOER staff and attendees to get reacquainted, or to meet for the first time in person. And, for me, it was an opportunity to learn more about telecom for meetings; this experience gave our group a chance to practice our skills with VoIP.
Scitable Free Science Courseware
December 13, 2010Scitable is a “collaborative learning space for science” that focuses on biology and genetics. This valuable resources provides free (but not open) online materials suitable for use by community college educators and students. Faculty can build classrooms for their students as well as collaborate and share. Students can join groups, build networks, and ask experts about science topics.
E-books available at Scitable include:
OER Consortium Dec. Mtg.
December 5, 2010This quarter, our CCCOER meeting was hosted by Evergreen Valley College in San Jose.
AGENDA FOR 12/9/10 Meeting:
11:00 am PST Brunch and Networking for on-site attendees
11:30 am PST Welcome by CCCOER Project Manager and Master of Ceremonies Randy Fisher and Welcome by Leslie Williams, Learning Disabilities Specialist, Evergreen Valley College (start of online meeting)
12:00 pm PST Focus on Faculty: OER at Houston Community College, Angela Secrest, Librarian and CCCOER Interim Treasurer
12:25 pm PST Open Course Library Project: Pre-Composition English, Jacqui Cain, Tacoma Community College
1:00 pm PST CCCOER Member Survey, Geoff Cain, CCCOER Interim VP and Instructional Designer, College of the Redwoods, with assistance from Randy Fisher
1:30 pm PST Break
1:40 pm PST Implications of Open Textbook Use on Teaching, Learning, and Institutional Policy by Clare Middleton-Detzner of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) plus a video of student presentations about this research filmed by CCCOER Governing Board Member-at-Large Una Daly in Barbara Illowsky’s De Anza College statistics class
2:30 pm PST Adjourn
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Tutorial on Repurposing OER
December 4, 2010Open University’s Learning Space offers a tutorial on ”In situ editing: Repurposing open educational content.” In addition to learning about institutional OER initiatives, such as MIT’s open courseware, Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative and the Open University’s OpenLearn, you can discover “how different OER initiatives design and present content for their audiences.” This tutorials also provides a hands-on opportunity to remix OER to customize materials for a particular audience.
