California Consortium for Equitable Change at Hispanic Serving Institutions (CC ECHO) Project Showcase

Session speakers were unable to present but have made their resources available to conference attendees.

Presented by:

• Kelsey Smith, OER Librarian, West Hills College Lemoore
• Alexa Johnson, MA, OER Specialist, College of the Canyons

Speaker Bios:

• Kelsey is an OER Librarian at West Hills College Lemoore in California and has worked in the academic library setting for over eight years. She has been involved in various OER grants, providing technical assistance to colleges working on zero cost courses and degrees, and developing professional development around finding, using, and licensing OER. She is currently serving as project director for the US Department of Education’s Open Textbook Pilot Grant, CC ECHO, that focuses on creating high quality OER for high-enrolled courses at Hispanic Serving Institutions.
• Alexa has worked with OER at College of the Canyons since 2017. There she led efforts in standardizing the workflow of OER textbook creation while also formatting and editing textbooks compiled by faculty. Currently, Alexa manages a team of OER editors at College of the Canyons. She also facilitates project organization and communication with faculty. Alexa has led workshops and presentations on locating and citing OER. She has also helped several departments develop OER pathways, allowing students to receive degrees without purchasing any textbooks. Recently, Alexa assisted in the creation of an OER Specialist course through the CC ECHO Grant.

Session Info:

Awarded the 2020 U.S. Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot 3-year grant, the California Consortium for Equitable Change at Hispanic Serving Institutions (CC ECHO) is developing culturally relevant OER and faculty training materials to meet the critical needs of postsecondary students at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). Allan Hancock, College of the Canyons, College of Marin, and West Hills College Lemoore are the four community colleges that lead this consortium. In development are 20 OERs for high-impact courses that are being created through a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion lens to ensure that students’ lived experiences are included and cultural biases can be identified and removed. Initial projects include an Ethnic Studies textbook, Structural Racism Guidebook for Faculty, Computer Organization, Kinesiology, and OER and equity training modules for staff and faculty. Dissemination of OER and training materials is targeted at faculty and students at California Community Colleges and federally recognized urban and rural HSIs, emerging HSIs, and national colleges and universities.

Join this presentation of faculty leaders and textbook authors who are developing the OER and teaching with these new, current, and flexible resources. They will share best practices for OER development, including peer review processes, involving students, and how to find and adopt the new openly licensed instructional materials.

Session Outcomes:

• Learn about completed and upcoming CC ECHO OER projects.
• Ensure that diverse voices and perspectives are represented in OER.
• Understand how a college can adopt grant-created OER and faculty training.

Session Resources:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JSbWlnGbKe_h5YXOqWLbuG0WZJKvDL3Gdff96wN67mw/edit?usp=sharing