Teaching at open access institutions, and meeting the needs of diverse students, community college faculty are at the forefront of promoting equity for learners in higher ed. While the launch of MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) in 2001 brought widespread attention to OER, today one of the greatest uses of OER in the US is by community colleges. What are the possibilities and limitations of OER from OCW for adoption and adaptation within community college settings? Drawing from interviews with community college faculty, hear how OCW creates pathways to find MIT teaching materials and insights into instructional practices at MIT. Also explore the critical questions about leveling MIT materials, content discovery, and OER currency. We discuss how OCW can improve the user experience for this essential group of equity advocates, and invite session participants to reflect on how the perspectives of the featured community college faculty relate to their own work with open education initiatives.
Attendees of this session will be able to:- Identify why centering the perspectives of community college faculty is critical for social justice conversations within the open education ecosystem.
- Summarize the pros and cons of OER from MIT OpenCourseWare in open access institutions.
- Understand what MIT OpenCourseWare is learning from community college faculty about how to improve the user experience, especially surrounding issues of diversity and inclusivity in education.
- Reflect on how the perspectives of community college faculty relating to OER on MIT OpenCourseWare connect to their own work with faculty involved in open education initiatives.
- Identify benefits of Open Education projects across sectors of higher education.
