MCC Community Highlights Value of Open Educational Resources

Combined with hands-on learning, providing access to equitable and flexible education is what Middlesex Community College is all about. For many classes, Middlesex uses Open Educational Resources (OER) that are in the public domain. Faculty and students can learn, edit and cite the free sources of information to enhance the learning experience.

“OER break down barriers of affordability and accessibility for students, saving students money and providing access to course materials on day one,” said Tracy Joyce, MCC’s Coordinator of Library Services in Bedford. “The MCC librarians work with faculty to provide support as they search for and spend time adopting or replacing all or part of their course materials with OER. We are available to offer support and answer questions, and have created an online OER guide for all to access on the library’s webpage.”

Students can also work more hands-on with OER than they would reading a textbook, according to Nora McClellan, an MCC Liberal Arts and Sciences student from Carlisle, and the 2022 MCC OER Ambassador. This leads to deeper understanding of topics, helps students hone their research skills, and allows them to find the most updated information. McClellan also believes that working with OER teaches students about the public domain and copyright laws.

“By designating a whole library of open access resources, students are able to find the materials they need and not risk using a work that, because of intellectual property laws, is not available for them to use,” she said. “A student is less likely to take someone else’s copyrighted work if they are educated on how to look for a Creative Commons License and only use work that is available for them to use.”

One of McClellan’s goal as ambassador is to highlight MCC faculty who use OER. Working with Joyce, McClellan wrote a summary of why Middlesex faculty use OER in their curriculum, based on a questionnaire she created. Many of the participating MCC faculty – such as English faculty member Stephanie Pesce – understand the financial relief it brings to students.

“Accessibility and cost for students, as well as consistency for me as a professor to be sure all students could access the same material at the same time without barriers is important,” Pesce said. “Ensuring timeliness and relevance of being able to update or customize material is also one of the greatest assets to OER. Benefits are the cost, ease of use, consistency and delivery of the material, and digital content embedded in Blackboard.”

McClellan learned more about the value of OER – as well as affordable and accessible education – through her work with MASSPIRG. In addition to the faculty spotlight project, she also has developed promotional materials and presentations on OER to inform other students about the value of the research tools.

“The more I learned about this work and the power of OER to promote affordability and accessibility in education, the more I wanted to be involved,” she said. “It lifts the burden of buying a textbook and provides valuable educational materials.”