CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The OpenCourseWare Consortium has partnered with the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) to maximize and expand the impact of opencourseware to community college students, faculty and learners worldwide. CCCOER represents an important voice in higher education, having over 200 affiliated community colleges that are interested in the benefits of open sharing. Nearly 50 percent of all higher education students in the United States are enrolled in community colleges. The shared resources of CCCOER, combined with the OCW Consortium’s more than 250 universities and associated organizations worldwide, and its collective free online educational materials, provide access to high-quality educational and job-training materials that many users tap into on a local level.
Under the direction of then Chancellor Dr. Martha Kanter, now Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, California’s Foothill-De Anza Community College District established the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) in July 2007 to identify, create, and/or repurpose existing open educational resources as open textbooks and make them available for use by community college students and faculty.
“Open educational resources and open courseware can be leveraged to enhance the quality and delivery of courses, increase access for learners, and reduce the essential cost of curriculum materials. With the current global economic crisis, the need to minimize financial barriers to education has become increasingly salient,” said
Dr. Judy Baker, dean of technology and innovation at the Foothill-De Anza Community College District and one of the founders of CCCOER. “Both CCCOER and the OCW Consortium serve to increase access to education for students with limited means, which makes this partnership powerful. When educators pool their expertise to foster a culture of shared knowledge, everyone benefits.”
As part of the partnership, the OCW Consortium will represent the full spectrum of four-year and two-year universities and colleges that are part of the organizations’ memberships. The CCCOER advisory board will effectively act as a voice for the two-year colleges within the Consortium’s organization. The Consortium will help raise global awareness of community colleges’ work with open educational resources, and provide resources and support to institutions interested in participating in the movement.
“The Consortium is excited to showcase the work of community colleges and share the incredible benefits of the OCW movement with community and technical colleges around the world,” said Mary Lou Forward, executive director of the OCW Consortium. “The partnership between CCCOER and the OCW Consortium allows us to raise awareness and broaden access to higher education with new audiences.”
ABOUT THE OPENCOURSEWARE CONSORTIUM: The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a community of more than 250 universities and associated organizations worldwide committed to advancing opencourseware sharing and its impact on global educational opportunity. The mission of the OpenCourseWare Consortium is to advance formal and informal learning for educators and self-learners around the world through the sharing and use of free, open, high-quality education materials packaged as courses readily accessible on a digital platform. The Consortium showcases its members to a global audience and provides information and training through webinars, newsletters, and free and open opencourseware materials.