Each March, educators around the world come together to celebrate Open Education Week (OE Week), a global opportunity to recognize the impact of open education and raise awareness about the benefits it brings to teaching and learning.
At Niagara College, Open Education Week (March 2-6) is led by the Libraries and Learning Commons team and highlights the adoption, adaptation and creation of Open Educational Resources (OER) across the College.
Open education is a growing movement that aims to make learning more affordable, accessible, collaborative and community focused. Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning and research materials, in any format, digital or otherwise, that are either in the public domain or released under an open license that allows free access, use, adaptation and redistribution, with few or no restrictions.
OER can take many forms, including open textbooks, videos, images, lesson plans, learning modules, full course materials, games and software.
Interest in OER continues to grow across Ontario’s colleges and universities, and Niagara College’s Libraries and Learning Commons team has seen increasing engagement from faculty in recent years. By integrating OER into their courses, instructors can reduce or eliminate textbook costs for students while customizing materials to better support learning outcomes.
“Open Educational Resources give faculty the flexibility to tailor content to their courses while removing financial barriers for students,” said Chris Bocchinfuso, Library Facilitator, Niagara College Libraries and Learning Commons. “Open Education Week is a great opportunity to explore how open practices can support student success and enhance teaching.”
Niagara College Libraries and Learning Commons provides a range of support for faculty interested in open education, including:
- Guidance on finding, evaluating and adopting OER
- Support with Creative Commons licensing and copyright considerations
- Advice on fair dealing and basic accessibility requirements
- Assistance with adapting or creating new resources
- A platform to publish and share OER through the College’s institutional repository
Open Education Week is an opportunity for the Niagara College community to learn more about open education and discover how OER can enhance teaching, improve access for students and support innovation in the classroom.
To view Niagara College’s sub-collection of OER’s, click here.
To learn more about OER at Niagara College, click here.
