Open Educational Resources
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium in the public domain or which have been released under an open license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.
SBCTC Educational Technology & Open Education supports and promotes open educational resources policies and initiatives in the community and technical colleges by managing and supporting projects and practices designed to increase access to open resources and educational technology tools for system faculty, staff and students.
Contacts
Boyoung Chae
Policy Associate, Educational Technology and Open Education
bchae@sbctc.edu
360-704-1011
All digital content created or funded by SBCTC, or produced by grant funds managed by SBCTC, is released under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
This allows the system’s colleges to realize the educational value of the substantial investments of state and federal governments and foundations in digital software, educational resources and knowledge.
The open licensing policy supports the Innovation goals of the Board’s Strategic Direction to use “technology, collaboration and innovation to meet the demands of the economy and improve student success.”
Open Licensing on Competitive Grants
OPEN Washington is an open educational resources (OER) network dedicated to providing easy pathways for faculty to learn, find, use and apply OER in any instructional setting.
It provides step-by-step instruction in self-paced modules to help faculty integrate open educational resources into their teaching practice. The site also offers a categorized search guide for all types of OER, and includes video testimonials from faculty sharing their experiences using OER.
Read the news release announcing OPEN Washington's July 2014 launch.
The Open Course Library (OCL) project, part of the Washington Student Completion Initiative, redesigned 81 high enrollment, gatekeeper and pre-college courses using largely OER materials for face-to-face, hybrid and/or online delivery.
The goals of the project were to:
- Improve course completion rates.
- Lower textbook costs for students.
- Provide open resources for faculty to use in their own courses.
- Engage the Washington state community and technical college system in global conversations around open resources, policy and data.
The OCL was an important benchmark in addressing the system's Strategic Technology Plan to “cultivate the culture and practice of using and contributing to open educational resources.”
The Open Course Library materials continue to be used both in our system and nationally.
