What a great title for an Open Ed 2021 session: “Textbook Poor But OER Rich!” Ron Stafford and Mark Knockemus from Northeastern Technical College recorded together this ten-minute session. Stafford is the Library Director and Knockemus is an instructor for English and religion. Knockemus spoke about using handouts to supplement an expensive textbook and realizing the textbook wasn’t including what the course needed. After that, they adopted resources the students could print out on campus. Knockemus spoke about learning about OER and working with Stafford, becoming a Professor of Affordable Learning. As part of this designation, they get a sticker and an award. Importantly, students learn of this and the course using OER. Knockemus demonstrated the use of MERLOT to find resources. They reviewed a Pressbooks English Anthology. They also mentioned Project Gutenberg: books that are in the public domain can be copied, shared, and reused under terms. I didn’t know about this though I have heard about Project Gutenberg. The Great Gatsby is now in the public domain too! Also, I learned that Northeastern Technical College is in South Carolina! While this was a short session, I still learned about resources I had not considered! The use of Pressbooks and documents/works in the public domain is also a great way to raise awareness of how and why works can be shared.
