Community Colleges were one of the hardest hit higher education sectors as the pandemic spread, exposing inequities which grew as healthcare, job, and housing insecurities were disproportionately experienced by communities of color and other marginalized segments of society. Enrollment dropped as students' lives were disrupted through job loss, lack of childcare, and uncertainty about ability to afford schooling or safely attend classes. Faculty and staff struggled to support students with online and affordable materials accessible to those with limited technology resources and skills.
Community colleges strived to help impacted students persist. Instructors already using OER transitioned to remote instruction more easily as their materials didn't require physical access to closed bookstores or libraries. Interest in OER and open educational practices grew as the need for more flexible, accessible, and meaningful materials became apparent.
Join our faculty, librarians, and administrators from CCCOER member colleges that have sustained and expanded their OER programs over the challenges of the last few years. Hear how a deeper understanding of inequities in education has led these educators to find new, creative, and socially just approaches to open education.
Moderator: Una Daly, Director, Community College Consortium for OER (CCCOER), a community of practice for supporting colleges in the collaborative development of open educational programs to ensure equitable access and success particularly for traditionally underserved students.
Beatrice Canales, Academic Unit Assistant, San Antonio College recently completed her SPARC Open Education Leadership fellow's capstone project demonstrating that student OER creation can build marketable skills leading to better opportunities for scholarship and employment. She is now developing standards for the skills attained in student OER creation.
Olivia Chiang, Professor, Manchester Community College is leading an NEH grant funded project to create an openly licensed digital reader of art history essays authored largely by scholars who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), featuring global historical perspectives, as well as the art and histories of traditionally marginalized communities.
Kate Schellberg, Digital Librarian, Kirkwood Community College has supported and championed OER adoption for over a decade through workshops, advocacy, and one-on-one guidance for faculty. Through her leadership, Kirkwood is one of Iowa's leading community colleges in OER adoption and lowering costs for students.
Joy Shoemate, Director of Online Learning, College of the Canyons manages an OER team of staff and students who have co-developed hundreds of open textbooks with faculty. She is also a member of the Open for Antiracism leadership team co-led by CCCOER and College of the Canyons to support faculty in the use of open education tools to make their classrooms antiracist.
By attending this session, attendees will be able to:- Understand how open education can be a lever for social justice and create resiliency at institutions of higher education
- Summarize how the panelists and their institutions applied open educational practices to address inequities exposed by the crisis of the last couple of years
- Consider how you might apply these open educational practices at your own institutions to promote social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion
