OER (Open Education Resources) - What You Need to Know NC3ADL Western Region Meeting, April 16, 2018

OER (Open Education
Resources)
            What You Need to Know

  NC3ADL Western Region Meeting, April 16, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

                         creativecommons.org

Other “OER-type” Models
• Using OER textbooks         Examples
                              • OpenStax
                              • Lumen Learning

• Creating course materials   Examples

  from existing Licensed      • Articles from Databases
  resources                   • E-books

                              Examples
• Use existing OER modules    • Merlot
                              • College Open Textbooks

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

CCCOER
 Community of Practice for Open Education
• CCCOER.ORG
• CCCOER Advisory – Google Group
    • https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/cccoer-advisory

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

Surry and the NROC Project
Cherise Millsaps, Instructor, Developmental English

Spring 2016—looking for materials to use in Dev. English online class

Introduced NROC English course materials

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)

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

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

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.

Resources
• CCCOER cccoer.org
• Open Education Week openeducationweek.org
• OER Commons https://www.oercommons.org/learn-
  about-the-movement
• EDUCAUSE
  https://library.educause.edu/topics/teaching-and-
  learning/open-educational-resources-oer
•     CCCOER Community Email cccoer.org/community-
  email

Universal Design/Accessibility
• Merlot http://oeraccess.merlot.org/

• SUNY Empire State College
http://subjectguides.esc.edu/c.php?g=754755&p=5408924

• Bookshare www.bookshare.org Partnering with
  publishers, authors, for people with print disabilities

Stayed tuned—more OER news ahead
                 David Wright
    Associate Dean of Learning Resources
          Surry Community College
              Dobson, NC 27017
              wrightd@surry.edu