The Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) has promoted and facilitated the implementation of Open Educational Resources (OER) at a regional level since 2018, when The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation provided funding via the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technology (WCET) to help underwrite the cost of a regional OER Summit. From that summit, twelve OER state action teams were created, each of which has worked ever since to increase each state’s capacity to implement and sustain OER in K-12 and postsecondary educational settings. Over the last two years, MHEC has convened and supported the state OER action teams and the Midwestern OER community by sharing information and showcasing each state’s accomplishments (i.e., webinars, listserver, and newsletters) and by engaging in additional collaborations with the other three regional higher education compacts and national organizations whose missions support and help scale OER implementation (i.e., OEN, SPARC, CCCOER).
In 2020, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, MHEC has engaged in a partnership between the four higher education regional compacts—Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC), New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE), Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), and Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE)—that aims to increase access, affordability, and equity using open educational resources (OER). This partnership, called the National Consortia for OER (NCOER), will expand current OER efforts in each region led by the compacts and coordinated by the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET).
Together, we are engaging new opportunities to build capacity for policy and effective practice, enable substantial research, develop open education solutions that promote equitable learning, and support coordination across regions to scale and sustain use of OER across the country.
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OER Resources
In the side navigation you will find links to resources to support your work in OER, including links to repositories to find OER, research on the efficacy of OER, state and leader advocacy resources, and details about past events sponsored and hosted by MHEC.
