A $440,000 federal grant is helping Northern Essex Community College in its efforts to make classes more affordable and inclusive by encouraging the use of free Open Educational Resources. Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium—digital or otherwise—that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. “This grant is focused on creating and adapting OER for high-enrollment programs that are both free to students and culturally relevant,” says Sue Tashjian, the college’s coordinator of instructional technology and co-chair of the Massachusetts OER Advisory Council.
