A group of 30 faculty in myriad disciplines from across the Contra Costa Community College District (4CD) came together June 4 to create, curate and implement open educational resources in their classes. The five-hour OER Hackathon, sponsored by the LibreTexts OER US Department of Education grant, enabled instructors and librarians to work collaboratively as well as independently in a day designed to minimize presentations and maximize results results.
Diablo Valley College English Professor Anne Kinglsey opened with a brief introduction and OER overview, where she provided multiple resources for faculty to peruse. That was quickly followed by a walk-through of the LibreTexts website by its founder, Dr. Delmar Larson, a University of California Davis chemistry professor. At tables that buzzed with communal work, with lunch delivered in giant salad bowls and pizza boxes, faculty put their heads down and went to work. Los Medanos College Math instructor, who offers fully sourced math classes at the off-campus center at Brentwood, cruised among the tables, offering encouragement, expertise, and tips for a program that helps makes college affordable to all.
By the end of the day, as faculty shared their discoveries and accomplishments, pride turned out to be one of the results. A few had found and added existing resources to their class sites. Others located some resources that they wanted to combine, or ‘remix’ in the LibreTexts vernacular. Others plotted their path to create and implement their own. And many discovered new collaborations with librarians or other faculty from sister colleges or like disciplines. Students who said at the last 4CD OER event in February that they believed that teachers who use OER care more about them, would have certainly felt the love. But there were no students, or presenters. This day was set aside just to hack. And hack they did.
