Monica D. Finds OER Refreshing

Monica D. is a new student at TCC. She is returning to school after fifteen years working for the same employer. As a mother of three, Monica is thankful for two of her courses which are using OER this quarter. “I am so thankful for this opportunity to use an OER. It is so refreshing to use a mix of articles and other resources online to learn the information for the course,” Monica notes. She also reports that she likes resources that she feels comfortable downloading, printing, and marking on, whereas she would be less likely to mark a textbook as much. Monica expressed a message of thanks to the students, administrators, and faculty who helped her to save some money this quarter on textbooks. “I’m excited to know that TCC is on the cutting edge of using OER and pushing to provide this service to our students. … I am a dislocated worker and wife and mother of three young girls. Saving money in any way is very important to my family. Thank you!”



(Photograph by C. Fierro, CC-BY 3.0)

Why I Take OER Courses

I. Branch, a student who is currently taking an OER class at TCC's Gig Harbor Campus. Branch writes,

TCC's OER Project has made a significant change in my college experience and ultimately the way that I can live my life. The savings of just two years with OER courses gives me almost $2000 extra - which is a lot for a broke college girl like myself. I've found that teachers who use OER are more involved and engaged with me as a student. Knowing what OER classes are like (amazing), I now look to only take instructors involved in OER because...what I take away from the quarter is so much more. Although OER was designed to save students money, I truly believe it does a lot more than that.

Welcome to The Liberated! We hope OER classes and teachers continue to inspire you.
For more information about the TCC OER Project, see our website at open.tacomacc.edu.

Introduction to "The Liberated"

"The Librerated" are students who have taken classes that use Open Education Resources (OER) instead of materials that follow a traditional textbook publishing model. OER are materials that are available for faculty members to adapt, revise, remix, and distribute to students for little or no cost. In fall 2012 Tacoma Community College (TCC) decided that we could save students a collective $250,000 on textbooks. We called our campaign "Liberate$250K."

At most recent estimate (Winter 2014) almost six thousand students at TCC have taken courses where teachers have adopted OER. That is a collective savings of $635,000. As the OER Project Director at TCC I believe that our efforts to lower student costs by focusing on textbooks as a controllable cost has improved students' lives. I hope that this blog will help us to share some students' perspectives on how our project has improved their access to education.

I give you "The Liberated."