"Working Toward Low-Cost Textbooks: Cross-Sector Faculty Collaboration for an OER Initiative Across 123 Campuses"

Katherine D. Harris, Professor of English and Chair, California Open Educational Resources Council, San Jose State University

In 2012, Gov. Jerry Brown of California signed into law two initiatives to help students gain access to low-cost and free textbooks across the University of California, California State University and California Community College systems. The three-year initiative led by the California Open Educational Resources Council heralded an unprecedented collaboration among 10 faculty representatives from all three systems.

The council found that the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in the form of free and openly available eTextbooks:

• saves money for students
• ensures they can access course materials on the first day of class
• positively affects student retention and success 

While OER sounds great in theory, when it comes to adopting, integrating and implementing them, barriers include finding appropriate, high-quality and up-to-date resources  

Katherine D. Harris, Professor of English & Digital Humanities at San Jose State University and past chair of the California Open Educational Resources Council, will share lessons learned (see Final Report) from California’s state-wide program to implement OER at 123 college campuses (see White Paper) and discuss ways to contribute open pedagogical resources.

Attendees will leave with ideas for how to overcome the challenges of adopting OER, as well as tools and strategies for sharing their own.