1. Open Education Resources @ Westchester Community College
April 26, 2017
Faculty Senate Annual Presentation
Presented by
Electronic Educational Resources
We learned from David Wiley to always make sure to define OER in the course of a presentation.

2. Please contact Prof. Norma Katz for any questions in regards to Office Mix. Over the year she has embedded audio / visuals of her lectures using Office Mix tools. She then imports them into Blackboard and has found the process to be easy and effective.
Office Mix Support
Please contact me if you know of any other faculty we can showcase!

3. The SUNY OER Success Framework uses the Educause definition:
What are OER?
The SUNY OER Success Framework uses the Educause definition:
Open educational resources (OER) are any resources available at little or no cost that can be used for teaching, learning, or research. OER typically refers to electronic resources, including those in multimedia formats, and such materials are generally released under a Creative Commons or similar license that supports open or nearly open use of the content.
OER can originate from colleges and universities, libraries, archival organizations, government agencies, commercial organizations such as publishers, or faculty or other individuals who develop educational resources they are willing to share.
We learned from David Wiley to always make sure to define OER in the course of a presentation.

4. Why are OER Important?
Since 2002, the overall cost of consumer prices has increased by 28%, the cost of college textbooks has increased 82%

5. Cost Affects Completion
The famous Florida Virtual Campus survey
60% of college students do not purchase textbooks due to cost; 14% have dropped a course due to textbook cost; the cost of textbooks adversely affects degree completion

6. Cost Affects Completion
The Buffalo State College textbook affordability survey is even more dramatic:
60% of college students do not purchase textbooks due to cost; 14% have dropped a course due to textbook cost; the cost of textbooks adversely affects degree completion

7. Cost Affects Completion
Since Fall 2013, Dr. David Usinski at Erie County Community College has used open textbooks, Open Learning Initiative's Concepts in Statistics, and MyOpenMath in two courses to save 440 students $120 on textbook costs, for a total of $52,800.
Pass rates increased from 67% to 87%
Fail rates decreased from 22% to 11%
Withdrawal rates decreased from 11% to 2%
Beyond saving students money, which in itself is an empowering service, in just one OER project at TC3, the positive impact of OER on grades and withdrawal rates

8. Connecting Campuses with SUNY OER Services
Open SUNY ALS connects campuses to Open SUNY Textbooks & SUNY OER Services (
Open SUNY Textbooks (OST) announced a new service model, to support SUNY faculty and SUNY campuses with their efforts to scale up open educational resources (OER) adoption, adaptation, and creation initiatives.
Open SUNY Affordable Learning Solutions both promotes this ground-breaking program and serves as a resource in its suite of services.
Please contact me if you know of any other faculty we can showcase!

9. Connecting Campuses with SUNY OER Services
Please contact me if you know of any other faculty we can showcase!

10. Upcoming News and Events on Campus
BOOKSTORE – A new addition a REDSHELF - What does RedShelf do?
RedShelf’s goal is to create new efficiencies for digital content discovery, distribution, and consumption. RedShelf partners with both publishers and college bookstores to provide students and readers with an elegant online reading experience and more affordable course material options.
Thursday April 27th 5-6pm during Common Hour
sponsored by WCC Library Copyright Policies
in Higher Education Location: CLA 303
Please contact me if you know of any other faculty we can showcase!

11. Electronic Educational Resources Members
Many thanks to:
Co-Chairs: Norma Katz (Nursing) and Deb Krikun (Visual Arts) Mariam Varghese – Computer Science David Sklar – Director of FSA, Faculty and Student Association Kamil Hamaoui – Behavioral and Social Sciences Margaret Eiden – Biology Julio Rodriguez – Communications and Media Arts
Hector Graciano – Associate Dean of Adjunct Services, Professional Development & Online Education
Advisor: Jessica Tagliaferro – Librarian, Learning Resources

12. (1) Open educational resources such as textbooks and course materials;
Policy On Textbooks April 20, 2017
The mission of Westchester Community College is to provide accessible, high quality and affordable education to meet the needs of our diverse community. The college is committed to student success, academic excellence, workforce development, economic development and lifelong learning.
In this knowledge-driven economy, the college needs to integrate information and communication technologies (ICT) to better serve and prepare students for the future. To sustain the college mission and uphold academic freedom, the purpose of this policy is to set forth the college’s various options concerning the access, delivery and usage of textbooks and course materials; however, adoption of textbooks is most appropriately determined by the instructor/department for a particular course. Still, faculty are encouraged to consider the following options (in order of priority) when choosing textbooks for their classes:
(1) Open educational resources such as textbooks and course materials;
(2) Textbooks, both digital and printed, temporarily accessed/rented at reasonable cost;
(3) Traditional used textbooks for purchase,
(4) Traditional new textbooks for purchase; and as the last resort;
(5) Textbooks, which are adopted by the department/curriculum, shall be strongly encouraged to be used by all faculty teaching that course.