Mount Wachusett Community College is moving forward with a pilot program aimed at reducing the cost of books for students by tapping into Open Educational Resources (OER).<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen faculty do this in their classroom, it would essentially mean free books for students,\u201d said MWCC Librarian Ellen Pratt. \u201cCommercial textbook provide essentially a course to the students. So this funding will allow professors to work through OER to create their own.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program, which will be funded by a recently announced $16,235 Performance Incentive Fund grant from the Department of Higher Education as well as college funds, will support 12 faculty fellows who will work with library staff to develop course curriculum using open resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be partnering the faculty with a librarian to help with a lot of this research. They will be partnering to dig down deep and see what is already out there. There is so much out there already that we don\u2019t have to re-invent the wheel,\u201d said MWCC Dean of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Michelle Paranto.<\/p>\n
Students in those classes will see significantly reduced costs associated with class materials, such as textbooks. This is especially important for students on financial aid, said Pratt, because sometimes there is a lag between classes starting and financial aid disbursement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf students have the materials on the first day of class they are more successful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The pilot program is part of an ongoing effort at the college to incorporate OERs into the classroom. Professors in MWCC\u2019s criminal justice program have already been incorporating OERs into the classroom, with one class going exclusively OER using government documents and online material available through fair use or creative commons copyright licensing.<\/p>\n
Instructors have found that the OER resources not only cut costs for students but can also allow professors to become more engaging with their course materials. There\u2019s inherent flexibility within the OER model that allows professors to branch out more and tap into online resources that students are already comfortable with.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiving internet assignments is so easy to them. It\u2019s me going to them,\u201d said Chair of Mount Wachusett Community College\u2019s Criminal Justice Program Reed Hillman who explained he looks forward to the library\u2019s involvement in the pilot. \u201cThe library has so many resources and is great to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pilot program will run for one year with plans to continue it the following year.<\/p>\n
Performance Incentive Fund (PIF) grants are issued by the Department of Higher Education and seek to incentivize the state\u2019s higher education institutions to produce cost savings for students through collaboration across the campuses. Since 2012, the fund has awarded more than $25 million in grants.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mount Wachusett Community College is moving forward with a pilot program aimed at reducing the cost of books for students by tapping into Open Educational Resources (OER). \u201cWhen faculty do this in their classroom, it would essentially mean free books for students,\u201d said MWCC Librarian Ellen Pratt. \u201cCommercial textbook provide essentially a course to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-member-news"],"yoast_head":"\n