I joined this OER fellowship for a pretty simple reason: textbooks cost too much, and my students shouldn’t have to pay $200 to learn calculus. That part hasn’t changed. But somewhere along the way, the work shifted on me. It stopped being just about finding free resources and started being about something bigger. The Cost Barrier is Just the Beginning I came into this with a clear conviction: textbook costs hurt students. That belief hasn’t changed—if anything, it’s deepened. But I now see that cost is one piece of a much larger puzzle. The question isn’t just “How do I make this course free?” It’s “How do I make this…

When I reflect on the research I conducted for my dissertation, it focused on bringing those who have been regulated to the margins to the center (both in reimagining and reconstructing the Civil Rights Movement to highlight the role of Black Women, and in the composition classroom). Marginalized students, in particular, are often asked to consume knowledge and reproduce it in order to show progress- to demonstrate that they are learning, to show that, according to university standards, they are becoming “educated.” But are they? Is the process of regurgitating information, in which you have no agency, a demonstration of actual learning (is it a demonstration of intellectual, personal, and…

I’m excited to be part of the Winter 2026 Math cohort for the Course Conversion Fellowship at Kingsborough. As an educator, I’ve always been interested in how we can make high-quality learning more accessible and equitable. This fellowship provides a dedicated space to move beyond traditional textbooks and explore the world of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) materials. My primary motivation for joining this fellowship is to remove the financial barriers that often hinder student success in mathematics. By shifting to open resources, I hope to ensure every student has access to the required materials on day one. Over the next few weeks, I will conduct…

I’ve joined an OER project to convert Calculus I (MAT 1500) and Calculus II (MAT 1600) into zero-textbook-cost courses. Like many students, I know how expensive textbooks can be—especially for foundational classes like these. If we want our students to succeed in STEM, the first step shouldn’t be a $200 book. This isn’t just about finding a free textbook. It’s about building something better: interactive problem sets, videos that actually help, and real-world examples that make calculus feel relevant. I want these resources to be accessible, clear, and designed with Kingsborough students in mind. I’m looking forward to sharing what I build and learning from others in the OER community along the…

Introducing the CUNY Language Immersion Program to OE Resources I am very excited to take part in this initiative and to bring these ideas to CLIP. Our students have been admitted to a CUNY college but have not started taking credit-bearing classes because of low language proficiency. As such, CLIP can be described as a feeder or gateway program, so investing in its development and sustainability impacts all of us. My experience in converting a for-credit course into an open educational resource has helped me improve my practice, and now I want to exted it to CLIP. The collective experience of dissecting each aspect of our courses and rebuilding them…

Discussion Post 1 – Introductions I am planning to convert my Interpersonal Communication course (SPE 12) to OER because the subject relies so heavily on real discussions and looking at lifelike examples of relationships and conflict. Honestly, I have seen so many textbooks that just feel outdated. I see dialogue that students can’t relate to, like “Oh Wilfred, you’re a pill,” or descriptions of women that feel stuck in the past. One text I was required to use in 2004 when I was first hired had 0% about computers or technology and used descriptions like – Jean is a working woman who is nearing middle age but she still cares…