Why You Should Care About Open Educational Resources

This post is the latest in our series dedicated to sharing SLATE member expertise on the same topic as our monthly meetings. Look for information below to get involved and write a post for us!

This month our guest author is Tracy Miller, Online Teaching Coordinator of the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center at Northern Illinois University. This post is written to accompany our December 16, 2015 meeting at Chicago State University about Getting Your Institution Started with Open Education Resources.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are resources and instructional materials that have been copyrighted using Creative Commons or open licences, which means you can incorporate them into your courses.

There are many benefits to providing your students with OER materials. Incorporating OER into your course can save you the time of creating content yourself. It also allows you to increase the variety of instructional materials for your students. Because they are usually free, OER are also an excellent benefit to students with financial barriers.

This blog post will introduce you to how to Curate, Evaluate, and Share open educational resources for an enhanced learning experience for your students.

Curate!

We all have our current methods for discovering content and finding instructional materials. Here are some search strategies, which can increase the likelihood of quick success. Every search should begin with your learning objectives in mind. Next, consider the type of resource you are looking for: an image, a lesson plan, a video. Start at common places you might already be using to search for resources such as Google or YouTube; however consider adding “scholar” or “education” to the search field or URL. Including such words can help refine and locate more reliable resources. But, always make sure you completely review the resource before sharing it with students.

Next, explore OER repositories such as OERCommons or Merlot. These repositories are designed to target searches and organize resources. Repositories are also a great place for faculty to share the learning objects and course materials they have created. Faculty who share their materials with the open community offer great recognition for themselves and their university. Another option is to begin searching for OER by using Creative Commons (CC). Materials with a Creative Commons license are available for faculty to use, share, and adapt (depending on the specific CC license). Creative Commons allows individuals to use the work of others free of charge and provides clear guidelines on how the author prefers others to expand and share their original work. If you decide to share your materials with the open education community, Creative Commons can provide you with a license to copyright your work the way you choose.

Evaluate!

Once you have found a potential open educational resource for your course, evaluate it carefully before sharing it with students. First, be sure that it aligns with learning objectives. Determine if the copyright or Creative Commons license allows the resource to be modified or shared. Check that the resource is accessible to all learners. When in doubt, ask colleagues for their opinion of the resource.

Share!

When you are ready to share the OER content or instructional materials with your students remember a couple of best practices. First, clearly state the purpose of the resource or activity and how it impacts the student’s achievement of the course objectives. Next, make sure the resource is properly cited or attributed according to the creative commons license. This models your expectations of the students. Distinguish between required materials and *optional materials. Finally, review your content periodically to assure it is current, historical, or seminal to your discipline.

8 Tips for Incorporating OER in Your Courses

• Keep your course objectives in mind
• Identify activities and resources you currently use to create key learning moments
• Look for activities and resources that will enhance the learning experience
• Be explicit – Provide clear guideline and expectations on assigned resources and activities
• Help students realize why resources and assigned activities are not just “busy work”
• Whenever possible select resources and activities that all your student can access
• If multiple resources or activities are available, let students choose the option that fits best
• Consider incorporating student-generated content for future classes

In a November 23, 2015 blog article entitled Beyond Textbooks and OER: reflecting on #OpenEd15, from The Chronicle of Higher Education, blogger Maha Bali reflects “It [OER] offers people choice . . . helps lead the way for students to choose and compare authorities.” The open education movement is gaining momentum. Keep these strategies and tips in mind as you curate, evaluate, and share OER content and instructional materials. Finally, contribute to the movement by creating and sharing your own educational resources.

Tracy Miller is the Online Teaching Coordinator of the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center at Northern Illinois University, where she develops and delivers programs and consultations on online teaching and intermediate Blackboard topics, and provides general teaching and technology-related assistance. Tracy holds a Masters of Education degree in Education with a concentration in eLearning. Her most recent publications include a chapter titled How to Scale Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning through Progressive Faculty Development in the 2014 "Inquiry-based Learning for Faculty and Institutional Development: A Conceptual and Practical Resource for Educators", edited by Patrick Blessinger and John Carfora.

You can follow Tracy on Twitter at @tracymiller256

Thank you to Tracy for sharing her perspective!

Are you interested in or have experience with one of the upcoming topics for the monthly SLATE meetings? Want to write a guest post on our blog to share what you have learned about it? Email Stephanie Richter with your proposal to be considered for a guest post!