OER IN THE CLASSROOM

Ru Story HuffmanProfessor & Dean of Library Services

James E. Carter LibraryGeorgia Southwestern State University

ru.story-huffman@gsw.edu

What is OER?

■ Open Educational Resources

"Open Educational Resources are teaching and learning materials that you

may freely use and reuse, without charge.”

OER Commons, 2015

In Other Words…

Don’t reinvent

the wheel

OER Mantra

■Retain  ■Reuse■Revise ■Remix

Challenges

■Quality/legality of resources■Sustainability

– Here today, gone tomorrow

■Organizational change■Trust factor/willingness to

share■Time

Benefits

■Free/reduced cost for students

■Relevancy■Engagement■Flexibility■Availability

OER in the Classroom

■Open Source Software■Open Access■Open Media■Open Data■Open Pedagogies■Open Policy

OPEN, nd

Attributes of OER■Free ■Access/Use explicitly expressed

upfront ■No Copyright, payment of fees,

proprietary owner permission■Easily & quickly adapted■Customization/enhancements

don’t require large investmentsOPEN, nd

■Errors, improvements, feature requests - openly shared/managed

■Development, distribution, use - community/consortia based

■Sustainability relies on sharing – resources, development, hosting, support

■Users are developersOPEN, nd

OER Mindset

■ What skills do you want students to learn and apply?

■ What content will you deliver, and how does it connect to the desired outcome and align with standards?

■ How will you check for understanding and challenge students to apply their learning?

■ How are you transitioning the learning from a passive experience to an active, creative experience?

Marcniek, A. (2015)

Licensing■ Free use■ Licensed for re-use ■ Modified and re-purposed

CC BY (attribution) CC BY AS (attribution/share alike)

Creative Commons, nd

Types of OER

■Open Online Courses – MOOCs

■Textbooks – OpenStax, Saylor, etc

■OpenCourseWare – MIT

■Depository – Merlot

■Content Modules■Digital Learning Objectives■Digital OER Library Collections■Video, PPT, Podcasts■LibGuides

Open Source TextbooksBookboonhttp://bookboon.com/en/textbooks-ebooksCommunity College Consortium for Open Educational Resourceshttps://oerconsortium.org/discipline-specific/Flat World Knowledgehttp://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/OpenStaxhttp://openstaxcollege.orgProject Gutenberghttp://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_PageUniversity of Minnesota Center for Open Educationhttp://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/

LIBR1101 & EDUC3200Cross discipline Textbook Transformation GrantDevelop, Design, Deliver Overlapping contentLibGuide delivery platform

■73 students■3 sections

– 1 LIBR1101, 2 EDUC3200■92.86% of respondents had

a “positive” experience with OER

PSYC1101

■Materials– Traditional paper text

■Myers' Psychology in Everyday LifeCost = $100

– Online, open-source text■Stangor's Introduction to Psychology

Cost = Free

OER in the PSYCClassroom

■ Findings– No significant differences in grades – Students who used the open-source, online

text were more likely to agree with the following statements:■ "I like the idea of a free online textbook."■ "I prefer using the free online textbook

versus buying a traditional textbook for this course."

■ "I like the idea of not buying a textbook for this course."

■ "I would still like to have a traditional paper textbook to use in addition to the online textbook in this course."

Future Directions

– Department-wide adoption of open-source, online text

– More courses– Increased awareness and

application of OER– Continued Development & Design

OER in the Classroom

■Funding for this project was provided by USG Affordable Learning Georgia Textbook Transformation Grant (Round 2, Grant #101)

Affordable Learning Georgiahttp://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/

OER LibGuidehttp://libguides.gsw.edu/OER

References

Creative Commons. (nd). About the licenses. Retrieved from: http://creativecommons.org/licenses

Marcniek, A. (2015). Open education resources meet instructional design. Retrieved from: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/open-educational-resources-instructional-design-andrew-marcinek

OER Commons. (2015). What are OER? Retrieved from: https://www.oercommons.org/about

OPEN. (nd). What is “open?” Retrieved from: https://open4us.org/about/what-is-open/