Open Educational Resources

OER Providers

So, if OER is GOOD, and its FREE, Living Up to the Promise why isn’t everyone using it?

The Challenge of OER “... sustainability problems plague open educational resources... the inherent contradiction in the idea of sustaining and upgrading a product that is given away.” The Promise of Open Educational Resources, Marshall S. Smith and Catherine M. Casserly, Change, September/October 2006

 Curricular content for both secondary and post-secondary  Complete course foundations with a flexible learning object structure  Sustaining membership to maintain and grow the repository Unique Among OERs

High School Course Foundations College Prep Physics I College Prep Physics II Algebra 1a Algebra 1b Curso de Álgebra 1A (Spanish) Curso de Álgebra 1B (Spanish) College Course Foundations US History I US History II American Government Psychology Statistics for the Social Sciences Religions of the World Elementary Algebra Introductory Calculus I Introductory Calculus II General Calculus I General Calculus II Calculo General I (Spanish) Calculo General II (Spanish) Introductory Physics I (algebra-based) Introductory Physics II (algebra-based) General Physics I (calculus-based) General Physics II (calculus-based) Environmental Science Non-majors Biology Advanced Placement Course Foundations AP US History I AP US History II AP US Government and Politics AP Calculus AB I AP Calculus AB II AP Calculus BC I AP Calculus BC II AP Physics B I AP Physics B II AP Physics C I AP Physics C II AP Environmental Science AP Biology Coming in 2010 Algebra 1 (NEW) NROC Library 2009

Editorially rigorous Media rich Instructionally sound Quality

Complete teaching materials Correlated with popular textbooks & state standards Curricular

Customizable by a teacher, a district, or a state. Can be used within popular CMS’s and repositories. Curricular Flexible

Interactive Exercise Documents Newsreel Documentary Video Text Graphics Contextualized Learning Objects

Instructor Presentation Advanced or Remedial Study Lower-Level Course Reassembled by Purpose

Educators, designers, technologists, and administrators working together to promote the continuous improvement of online courses through collaborative development of high-quality content and instruction. Sustained by Members

Value of Membership Member organizations may adapt NROC material to:  Enhance an existing course  Launch a new course  Supplement  Distribute in a variety of ways and to support institutional innovation...

Seeding statewide repositories Making textbooks supplemental Cross-disciplinary studies Credit Recovery Jumpstarting dual enrollment & AP prep Blended Learning Reaching students with special needs Member Uses

A Sampling of Members Alabama Department of Education Chattanooga State Technical & Community College* Clark County Virtual High School (NV) Colorado Community Colleges Online* Colorado Online Learning* Florida Distance Learning Consortium* Georgia Virtual School (DOE) Greenville County Virtual School (SC) Gwinnett County Online Campus (GA) IDEAL- NM Idaho Digital Learning Academy* Illinois Virtual High School Iowa Community Colleges Online Consortium* Kentucky Statewide Consortium* Los Angeles Unified School District Louisiana Virtual School (DOE) Lubbock Independent School District (TX) Maryland State Department of Education* Michigan Virtual High School* Minnesota Learning Commons (Statewide)* Mid-Hudson BOCES Consortium (NY) Mississippi Virtual School (DOE) Missouri Department of Education Nebraska Statewide Partnerships for Innovation* North Carolina Community College System Oregon Department of Education South Carolina Virtual School (DOE) University System of Georgia Board of Regents* University of Texas at Brownsville UT TeleCampus* Virtual Virginia (DOE) West Virginia University at Parkersburg Whitfield School District (GA) * Advisors

 MVLO’s initial focus (2002) was to provide online courses for students. Today there are three components: Maryland Virtual School Online High School Assessment resources Online Professional Development  Started using NROC in 2006 to offer courses that were not in our course catalog. MVLO provided the online teacher.  Have evolved to use NROC resources to supplement the content in the Online HSA project. MSDE & OER….

Students  Use several AP courses with MVS: Environmental Science, US History, Calculus, Physics Over 200 student enrollments in theses courses Build local capacity to provide own instruction Teachers  Access to resources to integrate into classroom instruction through MSDE’s HippoCampus site PD with tech integration and content specialists Difficult to track classroom use - MD districts have “local control” over curricula Practical Applications

Course Development  Utilize NROC course content in Online HSA course/resource development  An advantage of OER - rights to “change it up” Methods  Embedded- used the.swf files “as is” Did not use an entire presentation for one lesson  “Scaffolded”- modified the.swf files More control over presentation (content/LMS) Practical Applications

NROC Prototype

 Presentation embedded in page  Key information “pulled out” Only covers Section 2 of NROC media Added script Formative assessment with activity MSDE Modification

NROC Prototype

 Presentation modified from original  Information “scaffolded” Presented in Captivate Removed “extra” information Developed other activities to support concepts MSDE Modification

 Local school systems looking for content to supplement classroom instruction  Move to agency level membership for broader local access  High-quality media is cost-prohibitive for smaller systems Budget savings  OER courses/content has saved at least $125,000 in development costs (more if purchase and modify)  Time savings and content that is vetted and maintained Value of OER for MSDE

 Media files are difficult to edit or “break apart” for use in multiple areas Smaller objects to support multiple audiences  Importing into different LMS Consistent styles and designs  Intellectual property / copyright (even with CC licensing) Next Steps  Move to include “open texts” within courses  Meta-tagging for subject searches / “bridge” to NROC repository for federated searching OER Integration Challenges

New course development/adaptations  EdTech grant priorities for hybrid course development and piloting during the school day  Hybrid would combine online and f-2-f instruction ARRA funding for collaborative initiatives with NROC  Multi-state development initiatives Common content standards? Similar design standards? Looking Ahead

Link to HippoCampus Make HippoCampus assignments Blog about it, add links to directory sites Introduce faculty to HippoCampus tools Offer feedback on HippoCampus Know of great content? Suggest HippoCampus as a sharing vehicle Consider other institutional uses possible through membership OER success is measured by usage. Share it with Learners!

OER site: Free for individuals! Visit HippoCampus.org today. mdk12online.orgmontereyinstitute.org/nroc