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Open Educational Resources (OER) are “teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.” according to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
The term “open content” describes any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is described by other terms like “open source”) that is licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:
Quality OER has been shown to improve learning and instruction in education by helping students achieve their learning goals by providing students with open access to quality course materials and resources.
TED Talk: Daphne Koller explains the value of using open resources.
Financial Savings: The cost of textbooks can be a financial burden on students and textbooks may not be used in a course even though it is a required textbook. A Florida survey reported that 66% of students did not purchase a required textbook because of the cost which resulted in 37% earned a poor or 19.8% failing the course.
Course Content Access: OER allows students to have free access to their course materials at the beginning of their courses which can save students money while allowing them access to the materials after the course ending date. SPARC reports that in the last five years (2013 – 2018), free open educational resources have saved students at least $1 billion dollars within the United States and Canada.
Student Success: Open Education Group research has indicated that students generally achieve the same or higher learning outcomes when OER is used as compared to traditional textbooks. OER will impact student enrollment, retention and completion in their courses.
Current Information: OER provides students with up-to-date information to help them have a better education and effective teaching by instructors. By increasing access to education, OER creates a platform for more effective teaching and learning.
Academic Freedom: OER helps faculty by providing them with customizable materials or textbook information to strengthen their instructional course designs. Academic freedom can allow faculty to control the quality of content displayed in their class by presenting information in multiple formats to meet diverse student needs, supplement information when there is a deficient of information in the curriculum and provide students with continuously improved resources to enhance student learning. These open resources can provide student alumni to remain connected with these reusable resources for their future and to promote life-long learning.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are any type of educational material that are freely available for teachers and students to use, adapt, share, and reuse. OER can include textbooks, courses, or any corresponding instructional materials including images, videos, or documents. You can find OER by using search engines, or by browsing different types of OER repositories. In addition to reviewing the content, evaluate the license information for reuse, modifications or adaptions of the materials you plan to use.
There are several repositories or sites available online with new resources regularly added or modified. To help you begin your OER resource search, you may:
The Google search engine has an “Advanced Search” that helps you find OER resources according to the license type.
Low Cost Resources
You might be interested in creating your own OER if you are unable to locate the applicable resources. Courses can be created or enhanced by using a variety of different resources. View the following resources to help you develop and share content for your course:
Additional Resources:
OER can be produced to the same quality standards as traditional textbooks. Quality assurance is an important concern when evaluating OER in content as well as availability and accessibility. OER publishers work to ensure the quality of their resources by following peer-review guidelines and allowing faculty to review the material.
After selecting the open resources, that you plan to adapt, create, or reuse in your course, it is important that you evaluate these resources. According to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library, quality assurance in OER can be evaluated by asking:
The Academy of Teaching Excellence has adapted an Evaluation Tool for Open Educational Resources to assist you in evaluating your educational resources. If you are looking for technical assistance, you may contact an Instructional Designer in the Academy or services available by our Harper College Librarians.
As you evaluate your work, you may also find the following Additional Resources helpful to you:
Attributions
David Wiley, Open Education Week: Finding Open Educational Resources, Creative Commons Attribution license.
William Meinkey and University of Hawai’i Outreach College, UH OER Training, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 International License.
John Hillton III. (2016, February 19). Open education resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11423-016-9434-9 .
University of Hawaii at Manoa Library (2017, January 5). Retrieved from: https://guides.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/c.php?g=446214&p=3044066.