1. OER (Open Education Resources)
What You Need to Know
NC3ADL Meeting, October 16, 2017

3. Definition of OER
“Open Educational Resources are 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 repurposing by others. OER include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.” – William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

4. Further Defining OER Learning Materials that are: Free
Readily Available and Accessible (in the Public Domain)
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License
Can be Retained, Reused, Revised, Remixed, & Redistributed

5. Why OER? Tidewater Community College
Since 2013, more than 10,000 TCC students have completed courses with free OER. Besides saving about $1 million in textbook and material costs, TCC has documented another benefit—higher retention and grades. Z-degree
Northern Va. Community College (NOVA)
Working on 3rd degree using OER

6. Why OER?
“Rather than having a conversation about how to help students afford more college that includes $800 a semester for books, I’d much rather have a conversation about how to make knowledge more available to them, in ways that are both efficient and effective and that also kind of are of a piece with what happens in the classroom,” Kunkel said. Mark Kunkel, University of West Georgia Quoted in Inside Higher Education 9/27/2017

7. CC Creative Commons Licensing your work for the purpose of sharing
License conditions
Attribution (by)
ShareAlike
NonCommercial
No Derivatives
creativecommons.org

8. Other “OER-type” Models
Using OER textbooks
Creating course materials from existing Licensed resources
Use existing OER modules
OpenStax
Lumen Learning
Examples
Articles from Databases
E-books
Merlot
College Open Textbooks

10. Trends in OER Traditional Publishers offering OER “platforms”
Gale/Cengage – OpenNow (Gen. Ed. courses)
Follett—bought OER-start-up Boundless (November, 2016)
Open Access Publishers offering OER “platforms”
Open Stax –Tutor Beta

11. OERs at Surry CC
Online high enrollment classes targeted to go textbook-less. Faculty responsible for developing courses with OERs Stipends were provided in early stages Librarians involved in assisting faculty to identify appropriate OERs Online and seated courses not standardized with OER

12. Surry and NROC Cherise Millsaps, Instructor, Developmental English
Spring 2016—looking for materials to use in Dev. English online class
Introduced NROC English course materials

13. Perils and Pitfalls When Implementing OER
Faculty need time & motivation to create OER materials, or adapt existing materials
“I like this ________ textbook from…Wiley, Cengage, etc.”
Mapping OER materials to course objectives, outcomes.
Faculty may not be aware of Creative Commons licensing and the ability to re-work existing materials.
Administrative flexibility in using certain platforms (Example—Lumen Learning)

14. Barriers to Implementing OER
Textbook publishers’ “added value” products
What will happen to campus bookstore revenues?
What are the incentives to move away from traditional textbooks?
Many technical subjects lack OER materials

15. Role of Instructional Designer
Definition- “The instructional designer is part engineer, part architect, part artist, and part craftsman.”
Karla Gutierrez-Shiftelearning
Supports faculty members in creation and design of course content
Insures alignment with course outcomes
Not a subject expert

16. OER on your campus Be an advocate for students and their needs
Less expensive textbooks or no textbooks
Improved pedagogy
Role of Instructional Design
Reach out and collaborate (start with a librarian!)
Librarians are experts in locating resources
Librarians understand copyright, Creative Commons licensing, etc.

17. Stayed tuned—more OER news ahead
David Wright Associate Dean of Learning Resources Surry Community College Dobson, NC