Professor Grenier started teaching at MCC in 2006 and started using OER in his courses around 2010. Not only is he a faculty member at MCC, but he’s also an alum! Students benefit from his use of OER in his Intro to the Music Business, Principles of Sales, Principles of Management, and Business Ethics courses.
Textbook costs being a barrier for students is what prompted Professor Grenier to use OER. He’s observed that “students do seem to appreciate the reduction in cost, and yet still high-quality resources. They have expressed being happy to add to the body of work when we have crowdsourced the creation of new materials, letting them share with others.” With using OER, Professor Grenier notes that “cost stops being a barrier, I can modify it to meet the needs of the class AND we have built some of these materials as a class, giving the opportunity to think like teachers and editors.”
For faculty considering adopting OER for their courses, Professor Grenier advises to “Start slow. It doesn't have to be all or nothing, even one resource at a time is a help. Get help from the library for research and curation. Collaborate with others in a community of practice whenever you can.”
For next steps with OER, Professor Grenier is looking into ways to use AI to generate these materials and customize them to the needs of MCC classes. He also notes that these materials can often be translated easier and better than ever before, using AI tools. Students can help with the editing for understanding and adding cultural context. We are not there yet, but we are on the way.
We appreciate your continued support of OER, Professor Grenier!