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TOPIC: How to Use Open Educational Resources (OER)

What are Open Educational Resources?

Open Educational Resources are freely and publicly available teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license (such as a Creative Commons license) that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.   

Resources can include textbooks, course readings, and other learning content; simulations, games, and other learning ap­plications; syllabi, quizzes, and assessment tools; and virtually any other material that can be used for educational purposes.

OER typically refers to electronic resources, including those in multime­dia formats, and such materials are generally released under a Creative Commons or similar license that supports open or nearly open use of the content.

OER can originate from colleges and uni­versities, libraries, archival organizations, government agencies, commercial organizations such as publishers, or faculty or other individuals who develop educational resources they are willing to share.

Within higher education, Open Educational Resources tend to include:
- Open textbooks (free and openly licensed/Creative Commons licensed textbooks which allow others to customize, reproduce, and share without Copyright concerns)
- Textbook alternatives (free and openly licensed text, video, images, simulations, practice questions, open software selected by educators to match course learning objectives and preferred pedagogy)

The 5Rs of OERs 

To encourage educators to embrace the openness of OERs, a framework was established, known as the 5Rs, to define the rights of open content and provide guidance on how to use these resources. These rights are maintained by open licensing organizations such as Creative Commons and enable creators to publicly claim how their work can be used. 

Retain: 

Make and own copies of the resource indefinitely 

Reuse: 

Use the resource in a variety of ways 

Revise: 

Adapt, modify and improve the resource 

Remix: 

Combine the resource with other resources to create a new work 

Redistribute: 

Share the resource with others 

Source: David Wiley. Available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. 

  Brief History of OERs 

When OERs were introduced to the education world in 2002, skeptics questioned whether an open resource model would work. Faculty, college administrators, and others were concerned whether OERs could match the quality and authority of textbooks and supplemental materials published by the established textbook providers. 

  In the following years, as more organizations and institutions started open publishing programs, and Creative Commons began its licensing platform to certify and kick-start the open licensed model, some educators still questioned how effective OERs could be and whether they could live up to their promise as free or low-cost replacements for traditional textbooks. 

  Today, the evidence is starting to mount that OERs really can have a positive impact on the educational system, from K-12 through postgraduate programs. And these impacts are both financial and performative. 

 Why Use OERs? 

Initially, many educators, academic leaders, students, policy makers, and others advocated for the use of OERs in higher education because of the cost savings for students and families that open resources offered. The expense of traditional textbooks and supplementary materials continued to rise throughout the 1990s and 2000s, costing students on average $1,240 per school year, according to The College Board (2019). 

  Research showed that many students took fewer classes in order to afford their textbooks or did not purchase some textbooks at all, hoping to keep up by borrowing other students' materials or purchasing used editions. In a survey of 21,000 students in 2018, 64.2 percent of responders indicated that they did not purchase a required textbook for a class due to price, and another 42.8 percent said that they took fewer classes due to the high cost of textbooks and other learning materials (Florida Virtual Campus, 2018). 

  Many faculty and college administrators began to view the textbook dilemma as an accessibility issue, in which low-income and underserved students were increasingly at a disadvantage with their better-off peers, who could afford the textbooks more easily. OERs were seen as an effective way to ensure that all students, regardless of economic status, had the resources they needed to succeed. When UMUC began transitioning to OERs in 2013, the issues of costly textbooks and college accessibility contributed to the decision. 

 Benefits of OERs Beyond Cost Savings 

As OERs became increasingly available during the 2000s and have continued to expand worldwide, higher education institutions began to adopt OERs into their courses—even offering "zero textbook" classes. With the growth in OERs, educators began to realize that the benefits went beyond saving money for students.  

Driven by innovative faculty, educators began adapting OERs for their purposes, creating original course content that involved and engaged students in ways that textbook reading and practice did not. In the process, teachers began to assess the materials and learning outcomes of their courses in a more deliberate manner because they now had the freedom to adapt, modify, and correlate those resources in a more targeted way. 

 References 

  College Board. (2019). Average estimated undergraduate budgets, 2018–19. Retrieved from https://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-estimated-undergraduate-budgets-2018-19 

    Florida Virtual Campus, Office of Distance Learning & Student Services. (2018, December 20). 2018 student textbook and course materials survey. Retrieved from https://dlss.flvc.org/documents/210036/1314923/2018+Student+Textbook+and+Course+Materials+Survey+-+Executive+Summary.pdf/3c0970b0-ea4b-9407-7119-0477f7290a8b 

    Griffiths, R., Gardner, S., Lundh, P., Shear, L., Ball, A., Mislevy, J., Wang, S., … Staisloff, R. (2018). Participant experiences and financial impacts: Findings from year 2 of Achieving the Dream's OER degree initiative. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International. 

OER Policies and Guidelines

From the VCCS Policy Manual: 

Section 5 - Educational Programs

5.14 Adoption and Use of Open Educational Resources (OER)

5.14.1 OER Definition: Open Educational Resources (OER) are publicly available teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge. “OER Course” is a course exclusively using freely available OER.

5.14.2 Use of OER Materials: Colleges shall make use of OER materials in accordance with the provisions of the VCCS Policy 12.0, Intellectual Property Policy and Procedures; the Creative Commons licensing standards; the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998; applicable state and federal copyright laws; accepted best practices of the OER community, including a succinct and well-accepted definition of OER; and college policies and academic standards.

5.14.3 Responsibilities and Support of Faculty Using OER Materials: Faculty who incorporate OER materials into their courses, or create, adapt, or share OER shall be in compliance with policies governing the use of course materials under VCCS Policy 12.0, Intellectual Property Policy and Procedures. When developing OER, faculty are to use only materials that are published under a Creative Commons License or exist in the Public Domain. It is the faculty member’s responsibility to ensure that content incorporated into OER courses is eligible for and meets the standards for a Creative Commons license and is properly attributed. Faculty should consult the college’s intellectual property policy administrator or other OER expert to determine eligibility and correctly note attributions. Colleges shall ensure that all OER materials are accessible to persons with disabilities. VCCS colleges will provide training, support, and encourage recognition of OER use, adaptation, and creation as a meaningful scholarly and professional endeavor.

5.14.4 Licensing OER: Faculty or staff who create original content that is incorporated into a course designated as OER or who create OER of other types or formats shall place a Creative Commons Attribution License on such content as defined in VCCS Policy 12.03.f Creative Commons.

5.14.5 Identification of OER courses: Courses exclusively using low cost or no cost OER materials will be identified within the course registration system.

Further Readings & Tutorials

VIVA has several initiatives that are on-going in Virginia.   And they have many links to more information.  

Most specifically they have joined with the Open Textbook Network to provide resources to everyone in the consortium.  Including us.

Library eBooks

Misconceptions

Not all CC Licenses are OER: