This guide is intended to introduce you to Open Educational Resources (OERs).
The guide includes OER used by CSI faculty and recommendations for discipline-specific resources.
If you are a faculty member interested in using OER materials for your course, please contact Christina Boyle, OER Library Liaison.
If you are a student who has taken courses using OER and would like to share your experiences, please take this survey or email us your thoughts.
This series of slides will introduce you to the basics of Open Educational Resources (OER) and its implementation at the College of Staten Island.
"Open educational resources (OER) are free and openly licensed educational materials."
Creative Commons
Since starting the OER initiative in 2017, CSI students have saved a total of $1,433,187
The benefits of OER are not limited to financial benefits and include faculty engagement, student success, social justice, flexibility, accessibility, enrollment, retention, and completion, and open pedagogy.
"The cost of textbooks really plays a huge role in my success in the class. ... [OER] is really changing the way I am studying and improving my success in the class." - Blossom Akagbosu, 2019 Student government senator
From November 2019 symposium, "Conversations about OER, OA, and Open Pedagogy"
"As long as ... professors advocate for these students and advocate for [OER], students will have a much better and easier time navigating through their college experience." - Maxwell Velikodny, 2019 Student government senator
From November 2019 symposium, "Conversations about OER, OA, and Open Pedagogy"
Faculty benefit from OER in myriad ways. Some examples are:
"As faculty, we should be really concerned with the idea that we’re teaching a class and the students aren’t taking it just because of the textbook." - Anne Hays, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Library Instruction
From November 2019 symposium, "Conversations about OER, OA, and Open Pedagogy"
The following departments have used OER in their courses:
Division of Humanities & Social Sciences: Anthropology, Core, History, Library, English, French, Political Science, Psychology, Media Culture; Division of Science & Technology: Astronomy, Biology, Physics; Lucille and Jay Chazanoff School of Business: Finance, Economics, Management; School of Health Sciences: Social Work
Browse our OER guide.
Contact Christina.Boyle@csi.cuny.edu, Emerging Technologies Librarian and OER Coordinator
The COVID-19 pandemic has required a rapid response by educators to meet student needs. CSI has transitioned to mostly distance learning for the present and the physical library space is closed until further notice.
Many instructors might find themselves looking for resources that are easily accessible and don't require an in-person visit to the library. Open Educational Resources (OER), are free and openly available instructional materials (including textbooks) that are born digital and available from anywhere with an internet connection.
This content is adapted from Open Oregon Educational Resources and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Webinars and Conferences
CSI has implemented OER for selected sections in the Physics, Anthropology, Economics, Media Culture, Psychology, English, and Social Work, departments. For the 2019-20 academic year, students saved nearly $500,000 from using OER in place of traditional textbooks.
View the OER textbooks used in these courses.
In 2019/20, CSI students in 7 departments saved nearly $500,000 in textbook costs with Open Educational Resources.
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