OER, which is an acronym for Open Educational Resources, seems like a no-brainer to me. In my 30+ year career teaching Principles of Economics, I have used a variety of books, including traditional commercial textbooks, books written on economic subjects for lay audiences (in lieu of a standard textbook), and no text book at all. I’ve concluded that most intro books are pretty much the same, and that any experienced instructor can teach effectively using pretty much any intro text. Why then should we ask our students to use commercial textbooks that cost $75, $175 or $375, when there are free or very inexpensive alternatives available? Yes it takes some time and effort to adopt and transition to using a new text. I don’t discount this, but as professionals don’t we have an obligation to do that if we think it would be better for our students?

Over the last few years, I’ve adopted OER for my intro courses. Before we go further, let’s get a few myths out of the way. When I talk about OER this week, I’m not referring to class materials, bits of content, what used to be called learning objects. I mean open source, complete printed or digital texts usually edited and published by organizations with solid reputations.

For faculty who don’t have experience with OER, there are five key questions we will explore this week:

1. What is OER?
2. What are faculty and student perceptions of OER?
3. How good are open source textbooks?
4. Why adopt OER? Why start an OER initiative at your institution?
5. How to find OER in your discipline?

Monday: What is OER?

Open educational resources are much more than simply free resources. OER give students and teachers the following five rights:

1. Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
2. Reuse – the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
3. Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
4. Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
5. Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

It is because of these permissions, that OER are free.

While you may not yet fully understand the “5 Rs,” as David Wiley calls them, but understand this: they dramatically change the role of a textbook in a course (or at least they offer the potential for that).

• Read FAQ for Policymakers: Open Educational Resources https://docs.google.com/document/d/1px3jCbMW-bzhc7oNwxgaphTrurTr39lnowq1ZyE8Ec0/mobilebasic

And/or

• What is OER? http://libguides.tcc.edu/faculty/OER/oer-info

And

• David Wiley, “On the Relationship Between Free and Permissions in “Open” https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/4783
• David Wiley, “When is an OER an OER?”  https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/5463  

• Join in – Open Dialog Session, 4pm EDT; Tune in via Google Hangout (link TBA)& submit questions via Twitter, hashtag #openlearning18.

Tuesday: Faculty and student perceptions of OER

What do faculty know about OER at your institution?

• UMW Faculty OER Survey

What do instructors and students who use OER think of them?

• Faculty panel on OER usage (recorded video)
• Another Faculty panel on OER usage (recorded video) – Viewing Guide
• Student panel on OER usage (recorded video)

• Join in – Twitter chat 2:00-3:00 pm EDT

Wednesday:  The Quality of Open Source Textbooks

How can we be sure that the quality is equal to that of traditional commercial textbooks? Are open source textbooks peer-reviewed? Do they go through a comparable quality control process?

• Conversation with John Hilton III about the research on OER efficacy. http://OpenEdGroup.org  Recording here

And

• Read How Good Can a Free, Open-Source Book Really Be? http://pedablogy.stevegreenlaw.org/2014/12/how-good-can-a-free-open-source-book-really-be/

And

• How Good is a Free, Open-Source Text Part 2: http://pedablogy.stevegreenlaw.org/2014/12/how-good-is-a-free-open-source-text-part-2/

Thursday:  The Case for OER

• Conversation with Rajiv Jhangiani, 2:00-3:00pm EDT via Zoom (link TBA) & submit questions via Twitter, hashtag #openlearning18.

Are you concerned about higher education access and affordability? Open textbooks can help ease the burden of textbook costs for students and provide faculty with high quality, customizable course content. Join us for a discussion of textbook costs, student success, and more.

Archived videoconference:

Friday:  Finding OER in One’s Discipline

• http://umw-oer-summit.economooc.com/how-to-find-open-textbooks/
• http://libguides.tcc.edu/c.php?g=304199 OER libguide from TCC

 

• Join In: Find an open textbook in your discipline (administrators too, please!) using the information above.  Take a quick look at it and tell us what you think on Twitter.  3:00-4:00  pm EDT

 

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Page by Steve Greenlaw, edited for Open Learning ’18 hub by hub director Gardner Campbell