Vision
Open SLCC envisions a future where students at SLCC and beyond have access to high-quality open educational resources and where faculty and practitioners will receive the support to adopt, adapt, create, and share them.
Statement of Purpose
Open SLCC is a cross-institutional team that advocates for student success, inclusivity, and educational equity by supporting faculty and practitioners in logistics, scholarship, transformational open practices, and efforts to adopt, adapt, and develop open educational resources.
An Open Champion is an individual who has made a significant contribution in supporting OER work at SLCC and often in the broader open community. Open SLCC would like to congratulate all our faculty, administration, and staff champions. Here we highlight the efforts of our inaugural Open Champions from 2022.
"Student access is the reason I have shifted to OER. Finances should not limit students' access to course materials and having these materials available is especially important in the online setting. OER also enables me to update materials and provide students access to diverse knowledge they may not attain from a traditional textbook."
Ashley Givens, Assistant Professor, Communications
The School of Arts, Communication and Media
"I was inspired to create an OER to support our students learning clinical skills. We took an open pedagogical approach, recording instructional videos of each skill and having students write descriptions of each skill, compile resources, and reflect on learning. Creating and implementing an OER has allowed us to flip the classroom and give students more time to practice and apply what they are learning, while at the same time providing them a long-term instructional resource."
Gabe Byars, Assistant Professor, Occupational Therapy
The School of Health Sciences
"Conducting research for the OER geography textbooks I've created for students offers profound reminders about how dynamic, expansive, and integral geography is to culture, geopolitics, economics, history, human innovation, environment, and our responses to planetary challenges. OER affords students a multimedia platform for understanding the 'power of place' as they explore the expanses and minutia of Earth, of which humans are only a small part."
Adam Dastrup, Professor, Geosciences
The School of Science, Math and Engineering
"Moving courses from expensive textbooks to freely available resources has been among the most important work I have done in my academic career. For potential students, the (sometimes unexpected) cost of even a single textbook can make the difference between starting college and becoming discouraged. I am profoundly gratified to have the opportunity to directly improve the accessibility of education."
Jeff Davis, Associate Professor, Business Management
The School of Business
Frequently Asked Questions
Cost Savings
Since the introduction of the OER to the college in 2014, there has been an estimated $21 million in cost savings for more than 243,000 SLCC students (as of Spring 2022). The rising cost of textbooks can pose a barrier becoming an unnecessary financial worry for SLCC students. OER is one way to help with making higher education more affordable and accessible. For further information, check out our OER By The #s.
Academic Freedom
Creative Commons licenses allow faculty to adapt and create OER customized to their specific teaching style and the needs of their students. It also allows faculty to easily update their resources to reflect up-to-date information.
Students
Interested in taking a course with no-cost/low-cost textbook alternatives? Check out our instructions for locating courses!
Faculty
If you're interested in exploring OER as an option for your course(s) - please schedule a consultation with the Open SLCC office. We can guide you through the initial stages of OER exploration and connect you with additional support to make the process easier. Or visit the faculty pages on this website for more information.