Have you heard of Open Educational Resources (OER)?

Maybe you’ve heard they’re “free textbooks.” Maybe you’ve heard that replacing commercial textbooks with open textbooks improves students’ success and retention rates. Maybe you’ve heard that instructors can edit OER, mix them together, or otherwise modify them to align with your learning outcomes. Maybe you know someone right here at Durham Tech who is already teaching using OER.

Expanding OER adoption can be an important tool in furthering Durham Tech’s new Strategic Plan, particularly with respect to Pathways to Student Success:

Ensure that all enrolled students persist, progress, complete a credential or appropriate training, transfer, and secure living wages at equitable rates that meet or exceed regional, state, and national averages.

Students whose classes rely on OER are more likely to remain in those classes and to enroll in more credits over time.

If you’ve followed the Library blog for some time, you may already be aware of Durham Tech’s involvement with Open Educational Resources.

Librarians here attended “OER boot camp” training through NC LIVE in 2018 and have been building support for OER since then, working to help faculty incorporate OER into their courses.

Going forward, library staff look forward to helping instructors expand OER adoption in support of student success.

To learn more about about OER and how we can help, please join librarians Courtney Bippley and Stephen Brooks for their TLC presentation 
Walk the Talk: How OER Adoption Is Integral to the New Strategic Plan (via Microsoft Teams) next Wednesday, November 3, at 2:00 p.m.