A Cultural Shift to the Open Road

A review of current literature on the topic of Open Educational Resources (OERs) suggests that a key catalyst in the adoption of OERs is the effort to minimize the negative impact of cost as a barrier to education and learning. Yet, OER adoption is no easy matter and takes an effort to warm up the culture, so to speak, at the institutional and classroom level, even when there is a system-wide effort as a “push factor”. OER champions and early adopters have been instrumental in the adoption of OERs at our college, Moraine Park Technical College (MPTC), but it is a process and does involve the necessary and sticky challenge of dealing with organizational culture. During the presentation, a timeline with significant milestones that occurred at our institution will be presented. Steps to make OER adoption an institution-wide initiative involved integrating OERs adoption into our institution’s strategic plan. We will also present a case that is currently active and involves adopting OERs for our associate degree programs presented to the incarcerated population in cooperation with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.