How can open educational resources be used in teaching business courses in community colleges? – A case of Bronx Community College

There are a growing number of Open Educational Resources (OER) available worldwide to teach a wide range of courses at various learning levels. Hyler (2006) has listed motives for OER initiatives for institutions such as right to education for all, sharing of knowledge as basis of academics, leveraging tax payer’s money for the common good, better use of resources by reducing costs, good public relations tool, diversity in business models. As for individuals, the motives are access to the best possible resources and to have more flexible materials. Individuals are not motivated by altruistic ambitions, such as assisting developing countries, outreach to disadvantage communities or bringing down costs for students. While individuals are not specifically demotivated by lack of financial incentives, lack of credit academic reward system is a major impediment. Lack of time and resources for training educators is also a factor that comes in the way. Similarly, there are challenges in implementing OER for teaching due to want of quality assurance mechanisms, awareness regarding copyright issues and sustainable business models for maintaining and upgrading such resources. Despite these challenges, many universities and institutions worldwide have found ways to address these issues and have been creating, maintaining and using OER for teaching. Business education is no exception to this trend. At CUNY and specifically in Bronx Community College, use of OER materials in undergraduate introductory level business courses is not a prevalent trend. The three authors of this presentation have been using OER materials in bits and pieces and endeavor to completely replace traditional textbooks with OER textbooks and resources in Accounting, Entrepreneurship and Business Statistics courses. This presentation outlines the sources available in the OER domain for these courses and our particular plans to implement them in the above-mentioned courses