OER Compensation Survey Results
ASCCC OER Development Compensation Survey Summary
April 9, 2019
In March of 2019, a brief survey was distributed to gather information regarding local compensation approaches for work related to open educational resources (OER). As OER Liaisons were interested in what others were doing, the survey was intentionally brief, gathering minimal demographic data and posing the following question:
What information regarding compensation for OER development would you like to share?
Respondents were invited to upload or e-mail additional information, if appropriate.
Sixty-two unique responses were received from individuals at fifty of our colleges. Respondents were primarily OER Liaisons. In order to provide a meaningful summary of the responses, multiple responses from a given college were collapsed and an effort was made to combine like responses.
According to a document obtained from the website of the CCC Chancellor’s Office (“California Community College System Grant Awards with an OER Component Download California Community College System Grant Awards with an OER Component”), forty-nine of our colleges have received no grants with an OER component. The grants that were considered in this count included those funded by AB 798 (College Textbook Affordability), AB 1602 (Zero Textbook Cost Degree), AB 1741 (California Promise Innovation Grant), and Achieving the Dream. In the event the comments of a respondent did not make the college’s funding status clear, this information was obtained from the referenced document.
Fourteen of the responding colleges (28%) indicated that they had received no OER funds. Two of the fourteen, however, had received OER-related funds per the document referenced above. It should be noted, of course, that most of the indicated funding sources were not exclusively dollars for OER and may not have been used for OER in any way. Three of the colleges that were among the 49 that did not receive any funds from these sources were providing dollars for OER either from other external grants or other funding sources. A number of the colleges indicated that they were planning to use SEA funds for OER.
While we can readily gather information regarding which colleges have and have not received funding, the more interesting and useful information pertains to how funding was provided. A number of the colleges specifically described their “tiered” funding approaches. Others offered stipends for specific tasks. Comments have been organized into different categories for your review and consideration.
This survey provides a sampling of what our colleges are presently doing. Hopefully this information can inform your local conversations and advocacy. As local OER efforts are further developed, and strategies implemented that are demonstrated to be effective, we look forward to facilitating the sharing of that information.