OERs and How I’m Learning to Love Them

Queen-Victoria-Jubilee

Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

I’m not sure exactly why I have the image of Queen Victoria here. Just seemed right somehow.

1. Open Educational Resources are low cost or in some cases no cost.

Creative Commons licenses and the Public Domain materials are pretty exciting “discoveries” for me. I have already found a number of good sources for inexpensive textbooks, free course lecture materials and art images.

Geoffrey of Monmouth , Historia regum Britanniae France, N. or Netherlands, S.; 2nd half of the 12th century. Detail. Decorated initials 'C'(umque) and 'K'(imbelinus). Courtesy of the British Library.http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/results.asp

2. Open Educational Resources make it possible to supplement textbooks or chose to eliminate a standard textbook entirely.

So many of the textbooks that I have used for Art Appreciation are geared to a semester time frame and contain more than I can comfortably get through in a quarter. I feel guilty having students purchase expensive books (over $200 new, and not a significant break for those that are used or rented)if we don’t get through most of the material.

Young Girl Reading by Jean-Honore Fragonard Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

3. OERs make it possible to tailor information for a specific group of people, or for a specialized subject area.

This way you can eliminate material that you do not wish to cover or don’t have the time to devote to it. Currently I am tied to a textbook that covers less of what I want with each new edition. A good deal of information that I consider essential or important is gradually being dropped from the book. I am willing now to think outside of the text and pull in information from OERs and maybe wean myself entirely from a textbook. If I want to spend more time on Prehistoric through Medieval art I can find the resources to do it. Bayeau Tapestry below.

By Image on web site of Ulrich Harsh. [Public domain, Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

4. OERs open up the strong possibility of collaborating with others in my department to develop our own Art Appreciation “textbook”.

Several of our Art Appreciation instructors have discussed the main/basic points that we all wish to cover in the class. Three of us now have more familiarity with OERs and should be able to move toward developing those main points and sharing resources for teaching them.

http://www.wikiart.org/en/kathe-kollwitz/not_detected_235965 Conspiracy by Kathe Kollwitz

5. I love that OERs reflect the willingness of so many people to share what they know with others and that they do not want payment in return. The internet makes possible for the wide dissemination of educational materials to just about anywhere and makes it possible for those who never could have paid for a college education to make that dream come true.

The Dance by Henri Matisse http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:La_danse_%28I%29_by_Matisse.jpg

And what do I find frustrating about OERS??

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Scream.jpg

Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”

1.The search for OERs that can be used or adapted for Art Appreciation was interesting and mostly enjoyable, BUT it was pretty time consuming.

2. As others have noted, there is a broad range of quality in OER materials. You’d need to go through lessons, textbooks, etc. carefully to be sure they were level appropriate, free from error and interesting.

3. Licenses and the Creative Commons stuff is necessary, but I’m not very good at it yet and it seems to take me multiple attempts to get things right. At this point it eats up a lot of time.

4. If I’m honest, I will have to stay motivated to keep searching for Open Educational Resources that will work for my subject area. It’s just easier to go with a textbook I have used for a number of years.

5. Connected to the time issue theme that runs through the above items is the frustration over spending the time necessary to do things well in finding OER materials and not being paid to at least offset the hours spent on it. Possibly this could be a problem more for an adjunct than for a full time instructor.