Resources Supporting Faculty

If you have funds to support faculty in the adoption of OER, how can those funds be used? Just as it would not be ethical for a publisher to pay a faculty member to use their text, it would not be ethical to pay a faculty member to adopt OER. The ASCCC has established this position through its resolution process:

Opposition to Compensation for Adoption of Open Educational Resources

Fall 2015; Resolution Number: 13.03

Whereas, The development of curriculum, which includes the choice of textbooks and other course materials, is an area of faculty primacy under Title 5 §53200 and a responsibility of every community college faculty member;

Whereas, Assembly Bill 798 (Bonilla, 2015) encourages the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) and was supported by the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges in its form as of April 6, 2015 but has since been amended to allow for direct compensation of faculty who choose to adopt open educational resources in the form of reassigned time from instructional duties;

Whereas, Evaluation and approval of grant applications under AB 798 (Bonilla, 2015) is granted to the California Open Educational Resources Council, which includes representatives from the California State University and University of California systems who may differ in their perspectives regarding the proper use of the AB 798 grant funds; and

Whereas, The practice of incentivizing faculty to adopt any specific instructional materials over others could potentially compromise academic quality by encouraging or pressuring faculty to adopt materials that are less pedagogically sound;

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges inform the California Open Educational Resources Council of its objection to direct compensation to individual faculty members for adoption of open educational resources;

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges direct the community college faculty appointees to the California Open Educational Resources Council to oppose approval of any grant application that allows direct compensation to individual faculty members for adoption of open educational resources; and

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges encourage local academic senates not to approve any grant submissions for AB 798 funding that include direct compensation to individual faculty members for adoption of open educational resources

It should be noted that a prior resolution (Fall 2012, ASCCC Resolution 11.01) established ASCCC's support of OER: "Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges support the appropriately expanded use of Open Educational Resources (OER) resources and work with our higher education partners to develop policies for the coordination, storage, retrieval, use, and updating of “creative commons”-licensed materials". The ASCCC is also on record supporting the use of sabbaticals for OER work (Spring 2017, ASCCC Resolution 12.02).

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