About Us

The Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) promotes the awareness and adoption of open educational policies, practices, and resources. We believe that these practices will promote equitable access to education, particularly for underserved students while supporting academic freedom and faculty choice of openly licensed curriculum materials. Our membership includes hundreds of colleges across the United States and Canada. CCCOER is part of Open Education Global.

As a community of practice for open education, we provide resources, support, and opportunities for collaboration for learning, planning, and implementing successful open educational programs at community and technical colleges. Our activities include sharing best practices through regular webinars, online advocacy events, and conferences; maintaining an active community email list for current news, ideas, queries, and support; raising awareness of open education and its benefits; conducting workshops and presentations throughout North America; and supporting the needs of students and faculty at colleges engaged in OER adoption for courses and full degree pathways.

About Community Colleges

Community and technical colleges were founded in the twentieth century to expand educational access for all students seeking high-quality, affordable higher education options. Community and technical colleges fill an important role in allowing learners of all ages and backgrounds to acquire skills and knowledge, whether for career development, personal development, or as the first phase of their longer-term higher education plans. Community and technical colleges support open access policies that offer equal and fair treatment to all students, with a focus on teaching and lifelong learning, making open educational practices an excellent fit.

Our Mission

CCCOER’s mission is to promote the adoption of open education to enhance teaching and learning at community and technical colleges.

Our Vision

We believe that all students should have equitable access to high-quality education through openly licensed materials and open practices that value their lived experiences. Our focus is both on reducing barriers to education for traditionally underserved students through free and open course materials but also increasing engagement through including students in the curation and creation of their learning materials and experiences.

We support faculty, staff, and administrators in developing high-quality open educational resources and open educational practices to empower students to be the agents of their own learning success in courses and chosen degree pathways.

Values

Openness
Equity
Collaboration
Multiculturalism
Community-based educational opportunities

Activities

Advocacy and building awareness
Collaboration and community development
Professional development and training
Implementation support
Online Resources

Our History

CCCOER was founded in 2007 at the Foothill-DeAnza Community College district by then Chancellor Dr. Martha Kanter, who later was appointed Undersecretary of Education by President Obama. Dr. Kanter was fond of saying that “High-quality education should be available to the top 100% of students”, and believed that the development and adoption of open educational resources would make college more affordable for students while greatly expanding faculty choices for curriculum materials. As Undersecretary of Education, she championed the adoption and creation of open educational resources in federally-funded career training grants.

From 2007 – 2011, a key project of CCCOER was the College Open Textbooks Collaborative hosted at the Foothill-De Anza College District. This award-winning project included an innovative train-the-trainer network of community college faculty and administrators; a catalog of over 750 open textbooks with many peer and accessibility reviews; and research on OER impact on students and faculty at community colleges. In 2011, CCCOER became part of Open Education Consortium (now Open Education Global) which promotes and supports open education worldwide, providing direct contact with, and greater visibility in, the global open education movement.

Since 2011, CCCOER has gone on to support the other projects, such as the development of open degree pathways by partnering with Achieving the Dream’s OER-based degree project and the California Community College ZTC Program providing professional development, peer networks, and conference management. Most recently CCCOER is co-leading the Open for Antiracism Program and led the development of the Regional Leaders of Open Education Network in fulfillment of new and evolving needs of our members and world.

Tenth Anniversary Retrospectives (2007-2017)

For CCCOER’s 10th Anniversary, our longtime Open Education Partners and Open Education Global – CCCOER members new and old shared their thoughts on CCCOER’s 1st decade and dreams for the next one. CCCOER 10th Anniversary Retrospectives.