“Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions” (https://hewlett.org/strategy/open-educational-resources/).
The OpenCSCU Libr
ary Network (http://cscu.libguides.com/) is a new service supporting the elimination of typical barriers related to discovery, licensing, and implementation of Open Education Resources (OER).
The CSCU Council of Library Directors have committed resources to support faculty from all 17 CSCU institutions. Librarians from across the system, experienced with OER, provide virtual coverage Monday through Friday from 9am-5pm to address any faculty inquiries related to OER.
This service will support faculty seeking more permissive course materials to supplement or replace existing copyright-restricted materials as well as reduce the cost burden for their students. The librarians will assist in identifying discipline-specific resources to evaluate and assist in reviewing the copyright permissions allowed by the materials as well as provide guidance on how to implement and give attribution to those materials.
Faculty can explore the numerous resources on the OpenCSCU website that will help guide OER discovery and creation. If assistance is needed, a virtual chat session is available with a CSCU OER librarian in the website window. This site is live and can be used immediately!
Additionally, to connect with our own curated OERs LibGuide (that conveniently links to OpenCSCU), go to: http://libguides.ccsu.edu/oers
