12 Open Education in MinnState
Minnesota State promotes textbook affordability for students at Minnesota State colleges and universities by supporting and facilitating the adoption of open, low-cost, high-quality materials, called Open Educational Resources, or OER.
Minnesota State Open Educational Resources
What has been accomplished so far?
With support from the Minnesota legislature, Minnesota State has:
- launched statewide open textbook review programs
- funded professional development for teaching and library faculty
- funded local campus projects to achieve immediate savings for students
- developed Z-degrees at six colleges
- saved students over $3,000,000 in course resource costs each year
- Join or form a student body organization to advocate for course resource affordability solutions.
- Ask your professors if they know about or would be willing to use OER.
- Learn more about Z-degrees and if your degree qualifies on your campus.
- If your campus is participating in the Z-degree Project, take advantage of the advanced course search option when registering to filter courses that have “no cost” course materials.
Resources for students
- Student Guide to OER (pdf)
- Student Quick Guide to OER (pdf)
Faculty and Staff
A dozen ways to get involved in OER as Minnesota State faculty and staff (PDF)
- Join the OER Community Site, providing Minnesota State employees a place to start and join discussions, find helpful resources, collaborate on files, locate Creative Commons licensing experts, and find quickstart guides for common disciplines.
- Join OER faculty development events including webinars and learning communities on the Network for Educational Development events calendar.These events provide an avenue for faculty at all stages of their OER journey:
- Open Education Network Webinars – get introduced to OER, Creative Commons licensing, and the work with the Open Education Network (OEN). Review an open textbook and receive a $200 stipend.
- OER FAQ Webinars – Get answers to frequently asked OER questions.
- OER Community Conversations – Share, discuss, and learn from colleagues in the Minnesota State OER community, focused on a topic of interest.
- OER Learning Circles – Collaborate with colleagues from around the system in ten-week (five-week in the summer) cohort to develop OER ancillary materials or to redesign your course around OER. Participating faculty earn .5 RCE.
- Search for open textbooks, ancillary materials, or D2L course shells in Opendora, the digital OER repository for Minnesota State faculty and librarians to load, access, and share licensed OER.
- Ask your campus librarian to learn how to use library materials in your courses.
- Apply for innovation funding for an OER project.
- Complete the Creative Commons Certificate course and get reimbursed. Minnesota State supports up to 10 seats each year.
Librarians
- Finding Open Educational Resources
- OER Tools for Librarians
- OER Websites at Minnesota State Colleges and Unive