Colleen McKnight, FCC Director of Library Services, has been named the first Library Fellow for the Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) Commons, a digital library that allows faculty at institutions across the state to share, collaborate, and create Open Education Resources (OER). OER is a form of affordable textbook or learning resource that is openly available for usage and saves students from buying costly textbooks.
“Colleen has been at the forefront of statewide initiative to reduce the cost of college through the identification, development, and adoption of quality low-cost, no-cost, and OER textbooks and learning resources,” said Dr. Kelly Trigger, Associate Vice President for the Center for Teaching and Learning at FCC. “Her experience with creating dynamic systems for curating resources will provide the means to expand and share OER texts across institutions.”
In the past three years, FCC faculty and staff have transitioned multiple courses to no cost or low-cost texts, saving students thousands of dollars. During spring 2019 courses using OER materials saved students approximately $164,175.
Led by the University System of Maryland Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation in collaboration with MarylandOnline, the Maryland Association of Community Colleges (MACC), and the Maryland Independent Colleges and University Association (MICUA), M.O.S.T. supports long-term, statewide scaling and sustainability of open educational resources (OER) to increase access, affordability, and achievement for Maryland higher education students.
In this position, McKnight will provide leadership and support the implementation and administration of the M.O.S.T. Commons platform, promoting its use among faculty and staff at Maryland’s higher education institutions. Specifically, she will produce and publish naming conventions, establish a tagging nomenclature, provide user support, report on and promote site use, and add, review, and tag content.
McKnight has worked as a librarian at FCC since 2011, and was named the Director of Library Services in 2017. She been instrumental in updating library systems, expanding information literacy instruction, and designing and implementing the innovative Bess & Frank Gladhill Learning Commons, an integrated academic support space for students. McKnight has more than 10 years of library experience with prior positions at Hood College, The Historical Society of Washington, DC, and the University of Maryland College Park where she also received her master’s degree in library and information science.
