Video 5: The System Perspective: OER Support for Community and Technical Colleges

In this segment, Jenkins and Sebastian, directors of educational technology efforts for the community college systems in Washington and Virginia, share their stories of building and implementing an OER infrastructure for faculty. Sebastian describes how Virginia has a centralized governance structure, led by a Chancellor and the State Board of Community Colleges. Jenkins explains that Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges helps organize and facilitate much of the system governance activities of the community college system, though it does so without exercising direct authority. The two share ways the system office promotes open initiatives in the colleges. Sebastian describes three primary strategies used to develop and disseminate open initiatives, which include being supportive, utilizing various communication channels, and leveraging centralized governance. He also shares his insight on how to scale OER across Virginia’s community colleges and introduce Zx23 (Z-Degrees to all 23 Virginia’s community colleges). Jenkins illustrates an infrastructure of support for faculty use of OER comprised of open research, open policy, and open initiatives. Jenkins also discusses SBCTC’s open licensing policy and explains the role and impact of this policy on the system’s choice and management of OER initiatives. Finally, they share their plans for keeping the momentum around OER moving forward.

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