Today the real fun begins - hunting for content. As you know, I am not planning on using a traditional textbook. My rationale for this is important in understanding some of the decisions I may make as I go along.
1. I am philosophically in favor of the idea of open educational resources. "The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement encourages the creation and reuse of free, high-quality content and open source learning systems to replace expensive and proprietary systems. By promoting OER, community colleges can create sustainable academic resources for students and provide collaborative professional development opportunities for faculty. " (from the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources). I have participated in both phases of the Open Course Library, an effort to put Washington's highest enrolled classes in an open format with materials costing students less than $30.
2. I think it is an obligation of faculty to consider the cost of textbooks. The cost of textbooks is a huge burden on students, particularly the students generally served by community colleges. The Student PIRGs did a study on the adoption of courses from the Open Course Library. "The study also found that on average, use of the Open Course Library materials would save students $102 per course, or $5,499 per course adoption. These figures take into account that many students purchase traditional textbooks at a discount or go without them."
3. My own students prefer it. I polled a couple of classes and asked them about how they were influenced by the cost of textbooks. They indicated that, as the PIRGs found, they just skip buying expensive textbooks and hope for the best. Not a single student indicated that they thought the materials I selected were inferior to a textbook or that clicking through the different materials each week was a burden compared to just opening up a book.
So, with my rationale in place, I will go forth and hunt for some open resources.
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