Text M1 The History of OER

A Living Document

As an example of Open Pedagogy, you will be a part of building this History of OER, which was compiled by participants in this course.

OER is a movement and has a rich history. How did it begin? What are the significant milestones, people, and events that have moved it forward?

Instructions

After reading the existing content on this History of OER page, research the Internet and find an example of research, policy, people, or events, etc. about OER or open pedagogy.
Write your own 150-250 word summary of what you found and add it to this page, and cite your source URL.
Describe your finding so that the reader can gain some understanding of why it's important.
Please include a date with your content.

Click "Edit" to enter edit mode, then insert your content directly on the page where it's chronologically appropriate. Include your name and attribution appended BELOW yours (example: Above from ...your name).

Finish by submitting the Assignment for grading here.

A History of OER

OER Research -Working towards Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity

This study looked at how OER could be used to assist inclusion and diversity in nursing education through the design of texts. It discusses how the history of nursing education has not historically demonstrated inclusion and diversity. It also shares how authors of OER texts can use this medium to foster these important behaviors that improve a student’s learning experience, Lapum, et al, 2022). While this study looks specifically at Nursing Education it is important that all disciplines consider the opportunity that OER provides to include all students.

Elimination of barriers in learning is something that I believe is embraced here at YC. I think this research project, though sample size is small, shows how positively a text that is inclusive and diverse can reach students who can feel left out and unseen. The themes identified: representation, learning, identities, and self must be considered when creating or updating OER texts (Lapum, et al, 2022). Representation included identifying themselves in the text, Learning included the way the text was written or the ability to have an auditory feature, Identities included the ideas of diversity in the photographs and the way the information was presented, self-referred to how the OER was able to provide the individual student with recognition of themselves in the role, (Lapum, et al, 2022).

Lapum, J., Bailey, A., St-Amant, O., Garmaise-Yee, J., Hughes, M., and Mistry, S. (2022). Equity, diversity, and inclusion in open educational resources: An interpretive description of students' perspectives. Nurse Education Today, 116 (special issue), 105459. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2022.105459.

Added by Bambi Pish-Derr 2/9/2023

Role of Librarians in OER

It is not uncommon for educational leadership or institutions to initiate new programs or academic requirements without providing the full support of training, materials, and implementation needed for faculty to effectively and comfortably full fill the mandates. It can seem stressful and overwhelming for faculty to have to shift and/or change syllabi, curriculum, and resources quickly and with little notice or understanding. In terms of OER some additional obstacles for implementation can occur. Difficulty in finding resources due to the abundance of materials and complexity of copyright rules can make the task quickly overwhelming.

When an institution, such as YC, adds an academic librarian to the community for support, it raises both the amount of faculty participating in OER, and the quality of materials created and used in OER courses. OER Librarians help in many facets from providing strategies to find current materials, assist in assessing materials, and provide consistent access to OER materials. OER librarians are also team members who can facilitate the creation and curation of OER materials created by their respective institutions.

"Librarians and OER: Cultivating a Community of Practice To Be More Effective Advocates

Brenda Smith & Leva Lee (2017) Librarians and OER: Cultivating a Community of Practice To Be More Effective Advocates, Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning, 11:1-2, 106-122, DOI: 10.1080/1533290X.2016.1226592

https://doi.org/10.1080/1533290X.2016.1226592

Added by Carrie Meakins Farnsworth 2/8/2023

Radical Solutions

The idea of open access to research has been around since 1945 when Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development of the US Government, Vannevar Bush was tasked with the reconfiguring of how information and science would foster individual independence and freedom of knowledge. Bush eventually came up with a new radical rationale of cataloging, storing and accessing information that he called, “Memex”. Memex would enable knowledge to be universally accessed to aid in individual research.

In the 1960’s individual networked terminals opened a universe of possibilities for research with free software, and open sources. With these new resources also came a mastery of digital tools which encouraged individuals to further their research of knowledge. With the expansion of commercial internet in the 1990’s came the wide spread circulation of knowledge which increased educational expectations. Because of this, in 2001 MIT made the decision to open teaching content through online platforms. This concept was copied by many other institutions and is now considered to be the beginning of the OER movement.

“Radical Solutions and Open Science: An open approach to boost higher education” Edited by Daniel Burgos

https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/39552/2020_Book_RadicalSolutionsAndOpenScience.pdf?sequence=1#page=85

Added by Amanda Kelsey 2/8/2023

At the very beginning of OER

The article I found is called “A Brief History of Open Educational Resources”. The article shares the history of OER. I am going to summarize the very beginning of OER and its creation. I found it interesting that OER came into existence back in the late 1990s, and yet I never heard of it until I started working at the college in 2020. In 1997, California State University created a platform called MERLOT to provide access to mostly free, online curriculum for higher education. During this same time Open Access, which shared research and intellectual content was growing as well. While these 2 platforms were trying to provide free material, there were many universities that wanted to sell their academic content for profit, including elite colleges such as Yale, Columbia, and Stanford. Most of the universities gave up on the for-profit idea after a couple of years. Two universities during this time chose a different route than the for-profit one. At Rice University, Professor Richard Baranuik, built Connexiions, a web-based platform, used to develop and share open-source education content with universities all over the world. In 1999, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) committed to sharing all the content of its courses with the world. This started MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OCW). In 2001, Stanford supported the legality of distributing and altering open materials. They concentrated on sharing cultural works such as photos and music.

Bliss, T J and Smith, M. 2017. A Brief History of Open Educational Resources. In:Jhangiani, R S and Biswas-Diener, R. (eds.) Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science. Pp. 9–11. London: Ubiquity Press. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5334/bbc.b. License: CC-BY 4.0

Added by Deanna Mooney 2/6/2023

Pros and Cons of Open Education Resources (OER)

There are a number of advantages and disadvantages when it comes to utilizing Open Education Resources or OER within the Classroom. Some of the advantages include: access to educational materials; improved class alignment with learning outcomes; enhancement of the course content; cost savings; continually improved resources. Similarly, there are still a number of disadvantages for OERs that include: lack of human interaction between teachers and students; technological issues; copyright concerns; sustainability concerns. As mentioned, OERs can provide a huge cost savings benefit to the students for not having to purchase textbooks, provides easier access to the educational material (especially in a day and age where technology in centric to almost all things), and it ensures the material is relevant to the class. Gone are the days where only one chapter in an expensive book is relevant to the class. The instructors are able to tailor the material to better fit the learning outcomes. However, as much as there are a number of advantages, concerns regarding the lack of interaction between the instructors and students due to a more virtual format and overall sustainability since there is no payment for folks that provide OER. That is assuming content can be found that will not violate copyright laws. There is a lot of benefits to OER but it is not a perfect system and to truly capitalize on the benefits for students in cost savings, addressing some of the disadvantages will be paramount.

LibGuides: Open Educational Resources: OER Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://libguides.umgc.edu/c.php?g=23404

Added by Ashley Ahlquist 10/15/2022

Achieving the Dream

As discussed by Burt (2021), the goal of Open Educational Resources (OER) is to increase student persistence and graduation rates by reducing costs for students. Following with this idea, Achieving the Dream, started an Open Educational Resources Degree Initiative in 2016. The initiative conducted a three-year study at 38 different two-year colleges and saved students over 10.5 billion dollars in free or inexpensive resources. The study found that 40% of the students stated that OER courses would help them afford their postsecondary education. Additionally the study found, students earned more credits in the OER classes than in those that used alternative resources thus demonstrating the success such classes could have on persistence and graduation rates.

While the classes and resources benefit the students financially, and do add to overall educational success, the study noted that the same was not true for educational institutions that created OER-based courses and degree programs. For example, the non-profit SRI Education reported a cost of around $575,000. Despite this cost, the Burt (2021) concluded that the benefits of adopting the resources were significant and student achievement was higher than at colleges that had not adopted OER.

Chris Burt

New Study at 8 colleges will look at boosting OER use.

https://universitybusiness.com/new-study-at-8-colleges-will-look-at-boosting-oer-use/

Added by Melinda Button 2/21/2023

Recommendation on Open Education Resources (OER)

Global challenges require global solutions. I found this source interesting and inspiring because of its international scope and broad, yet sensible recommendations. The Recommendation on OER, adopted by UNESCO’s General Conference at its 40th session on 25 November 2019, is the first international normative instrument to embrace the field of openly licensed educational materials and technologies in education. The site is well organized, includes excellent examples and definitions, and provides a comprehensive framework for considering OER. Their recommendations include:

Capacity building: developing the capacity of all key education stakeholders to create, access, re-use, re-purpose, adapt, and redistribute OER, as well as to use and apply open licenses in a manner consistent with national copyright legislation and international obligations;
Developing supportive policy: encouraging governments, education authorities, and institutions to adopt regulatory frameworks to support open licensing of publicly funded educational and research materials, develop strategies to enable the use and adaptation of OER in support of high quality, inclusive education and lifelong learning for all, supported by relevant research in the area;
Effective, inclusive and equitable access to quality OER: supporting the adoption of strategies and programs including through relevant technology solutions that ensure OER in any medium are shared in open formats and standards to maximize equitable access, co-creation, curation, and searchability, including for those from vulnerable groups and persons with disabilities;
Nurturing the creation of sustainability models for OER: supporting and encouraging the creation of sustainability models for OER at national, regional and institutional levels, and the planning and pilot testing of new sustainable forms of education and learning;
Fostering and facilitating international cooperation: supporting international cooperation between stakeholders to minimize unnecessary duplication in OER development investments and to develop a global pool of culturally diverse, locally relevant, gender-sensitive, accessible, educational materials in multiple languages and formats.

Progressive and responsive educators will always find a way to create, curate, distribute, and remix OER resources. I began teaching in the public school system and quickly found out the “state adopted textbooks” were outdated. These sources and did not reflect the current issues/challenges/practices and were not useful. After 1 year, I decided to eschew the “state adopted textbooks” and forged a new way to engage and assess students. Scaling such practices is dependent on institutional and governmental leadership. Textbooks are, for the most part, vestigial limbs from a previous epoch.

Source

https://www.unesco.org/en/communication-information/open-solutions/open-educational-resources Accessed 9/13/2022

Added by Richard Pierce 9/13/2022

Teaching with Open Pedagogy

The history of OER and pedagogy is important because it brings the ideology of affordable education and freedom of information. The University of Texas Rio Grand Valley has been sharing information with the public on open pedagogy and OER courses. The University states there are many definitions surrounding pedagogy policy, however; the working definition they are utilizing includes that project assignments are utilized to engage students as creators of information rather than consumers, inviting them to be apart of the teaching process, moving away from single-use assignments in favor of situated, collaborative and renewable ones, and students deciding how/if their work is shared. An example of open pedagogy given in the article is having students create a test bank of questions for an open textbook.

Furthermore, the University states that OER stands for Open Educational Practices, such as pedagogy. OER expands on instructor’s ability to be creative when planning out their curriculum.

Several examples and resources are available through this website including but not limited to, case studies, starter kits, renewable assignments, assignment examples, project examples, and so much more. I will be utilizing the tools found in this article for the OER courses I will be developing.

Work Cited:

“Textbook affordability project administered by the University Library,” UTRGV. Available: https://www.utrgv.edu/textbook-affordability-project/resources-and-support/teaching-with-open-pedagogy/index.htm.

Above content added by Amanda Sanders on 9/13/2022.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons allows people, including staff and faculty, to use, remix and share material. It was started in 2001 by bloggers to retain their copyright information while sharing online content. In 2002, Creative Commons began licensing content. Creative Commons licenses help creators and users interact with content to design and develop many courses for education. Creative Commons can be utilized by anyone, including business. The license is less restrictive than standard copyright laws.

Because the internet is worldwide, the licenses are used around the world. The person who creates the content can decide how much permission they want to allow to the user. The creator first chooses if they want to allow commercial use of the content. Then the creator can decide if the user can copy, remix and/or distribute the content. Today, one can find pictures, music and media on Creative Commons with a simple internet search.

As an educator, I find Creative Commons extremely easy to use. It is the largest site of material at your fingertips. Creative Commons has spurred OER to be a reality in education. Educators can safely find material to use in a course and not fear infringing on copyright laws.

Hogendoorn, Lillian. (2020), A short history of OER, https://h5pstudio.ecampusontario.ca/content/4804

About the Licenses. (n.d.) Creative Commons, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Above added by Marie Hardman on 3-28-23

The History of Open Culture

Perhaps OER was inevitable.

In the creative writing department, students and faculty were abuzz around 2010 with the student interaction of something called Open Culture. Open Culture started in 2006 as a webpage with a blog feel, a website that doesn’t seem like it would present enough of a challenge to the academic community. However, students in creative writing were debating about the merits of Open Culture.

On the one hand, information should be free to everyone. Some students love that there is access to a world of books –both text and audio—and since this conversation, Open Culture has added free online courses, lectures, rare audio recordings of Sylvia Plath and T.S. Eliot. You can watch Oscar movies, listen to podcasts, and now download syllabi and K-12 resources for classrooms. What a great resource, listening to F. Scott Fitzgerald read William Shakespeare. It’s more than just a work of art, it’s an experience.

But on the other hand, the creative writers debated, what about the work on there from modern writers? Does that mean that the modern writers don’t make the royalties for those works of art? A search on Open Culture today produces hits for Neil deGrasse Tyson, David Foster Wallace, and Art Garfunkel; Are these artists (or heirs) relinquishing the rights to these royalties? And is it ethical to ask the non-headlining writers –who have historically been offered very little in the last decades for their work—to not be paid for what takes sometimes years to produce? And how are the rights issues here any different from the rights issues that current events was privy to in 2001 when Napster was shut down for copyright violation? Is this a continuation of a cultural statement, that artists will continue to be starving?

I think as far as creative writers are concerned, the debate is still ongoing. In the meantime, Open Culture stands as a representative of a dialogue which OER is part of: Who owns the artistic works of our culture?

Work Cited:

https://www.openculture.com/

Above content added by Kristen Kauffman 02/11/2023 and edited on 06/13/2023.

OER Challenges

I found a short article about OER on digitalpromise.org. Always curious, and a bit skeptical, with any website I come across, their “About” page states a mission focusing on equitable education systems. Digital Promise is a global nonprofit, and like the name of their organization implies, the organization sees technology as critical piece to the education’s continued evolution.

The specific article I came across on Digital Promise’s website discusses some of OER’s challenges. These challenges include, but are not limited to, teachers awareness and trust of OER, knowledge of accessible OER tools, and any technological shortcomings an educational institution might have when trying to implement an OER program.

The real challenge is not so much a lack of OER material but finding and using the right educational material. And this challenge correlates with traditional educators’ hesitation moving towards OER. What the Digital Promise organization tries to do is help educators with these aforementioned challenges. Looking forward, although technology may open many doors for the students, and aid in instructor independence, much more general training is needed (especially for this teacher!)

https://challengemap.digitalpromise.org/technology-network-infrastructure/open-educational-resources-oer/

Above content was added by Michael McInnes on 2/22/2023

Working with/through AI and OER vs. Against it

This article centers around the idea that OER courses were “focused on material in any format and medium that reside on the public domain.” This is at the heart of how OER started. It continues to talk about how AI will continue to shape and shift the conversation of OER and licensing. However, what does that mean when AI is not in the mix of creating and revising in almost every aspect of writing and revising material? In the world of OER, there are many challenges that arise due to this quandary. The article continues that there are blessings such as providing more adaptive and engaging learning and teaching experiences and blending those. AI is learning new algorithms and can help learners but again and be more aligned to different styles of learning and attentiveness. According to this article, there are indications that OER and OEP (Open Educational Practices) are working with the AI technologies but there is a lot to still learn from these. Of course, there might be some expanded access to learning, but one might find that there are more costs than benefits, but at the same time, it is an unavoidable transition we are confronting. I am left wondering how we will ensure that materials will be protected and that information that is submitted is from a licensed source vs. an animated robot who is getting smarter with algorithms and able to produce the material with little to no effort. How are we going to work THROUGH and WITH AI vs. against it?

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10494820.2022.2101595Links to an external site.

submitted by Beth Van Oss 6/17/23

Increasing OER Awareness

The article that I will be discussing is Awareness and Use of Open Educational Resources: A Study. This articles explores the importance of awareness and growth of open educational resources. In the study conducted in the article faculty and students were surveyed to inquire about their use of open educational resources. The conclusion was that students and faculty with higher awareness of open educational resources are applying it more effectivity. The determination was made on increasing the promotion of understanding the uses of open educational resources to faculty and staff.

I believe this content is important because it highlights the amount of students and faculty that do not have awareness of open educational resources. Which limits their ability to access these free online resources that could be useful in education. This article also emphasizes that awareness for what open educational resources are and specifically how to use utilize them more efficiently is needed.

Work Cited: https://proxy.yc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/awareness-use-open-educational-resources-study/docview/2617203300/se-2

Above added by Sonia Ayala on 2/24/2023

Learning to be Open: Instructor Growth Through Open Pedagogy

It is known based on the articles reviewed below that OER is gaining popularity as a method for increasing student engagement and motivation, while decreasing costs for the student. A study by Werth & Williams (2021) focused specifically on the instructor and how their experiences influence the outcomes of OER implementation and success of student. The research explored the differences between the first-time teaching with OER, in comparison to the second (and on). Specifically, it was determined through this comparison that instructors teaching with OER for the first time lack an understanding of the value of the approach, impacting their ability to properly educate and mentor students. By the second time teaching, instructors recognize an evolution in their view of teaching, increasing the quality of interaction with students and creating broader use of practices to support student outcomes (Werth & Williams (2021). Kudos to Yavapai College for aligning with best practice and asking staff involved with OER to become more knowledgeable by taking a training such as this one.

Werth & Williams. (2021). Learning to be open: Instructor growth through open pedagogy. The Journal of Open, Distance, and e-Learning. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2021.1970520

Above content was added by Ashley Picard, 2/27/23

________________________________________________________________________________________

The following articles are listed by a group I follow called the Learning Counsel. TLC tracks trends within the digital learning ecosystem, and consults with both public and private educational organizations, businesses, publishers, etc...

There is a saying with OER resources. OER is "free like a puppy, not like beer." The meaning is simply you get what you pay for, and the free use of OER resources can mean costs in other areas such as the human resource costs of the professor in curating additional materials to fill in any missing gaps.

This article by LeiLani Cauthinhttps://thelearningcounsel.com/article/free-puppy%E2%80%94oer-part-2 (Links to an external site.)argues that over the long term the widespread use of OERs comes at the expense of sophistication and design the use of instructional resources.

One struggle I have is that with math is that I have yet to find awesome interactive OER resources that are on par with purchased ones. I have some across this when teaching statistics and precal. While the use of OER did save the students maybe $100, I question if the added stress was worth the savings. Certainly there is a balance. :-)

Here is a similar articlehttps://thelearningcounsel.com/article/are-you-still-going-prefer-oer-228-billion-loss-publishers-future-%E2%80%93-part-1 (Links to an external site.)which talks about how much publishers are losing and what the ramifications are on this for the educational industry as a whole. Certainly there is a love/hate relationship as we need the publishers and they need us. :-/

Matt Waymack reposted 3.22.23

Saving Money without Sacrificing Learning

“There’s new evidence that open educational resources may contribute to helping students complete college.”

While this is not a historical perspective, it certainly notes significant milestones.

I was first approached to use OERs in 2019, actually I was instructed that this was a requirement of the class I was assigned to teach. After my initial review, and throughout the class I was teaching, my experience was not great. It was not so much the content, which I did find somewhat lacking, it was mostly due to the links not working, within the body of the pages. I did not have the ability to update these links, ultimately causing a frustrating experience for the students as well as myself.

OERs have evolved! I have now found material, much improved, with substantially more information, and links have been updated…to work! In addition, there are more choices now, so instructors can view a variety, through different resources before deciding what to adopt in their classes.

A recent study showed that students earned more college credit due to free or low-cost class texts, as compared to students who used traditional, more expensive texts (Griffiths et al., 2020).

I think we can all attest as instructors, at least I can, that students reach out to ask if there is anyway that they can complete the class without purchasing a text, or if possibly they could purchase a much older edition, that may be more affordable. In my experience, I believe this to be a direct factor in student retention.

Another milestone I can think of, is the use of college department funds specifically to hire instructors to develop OER materials, this too helps to develop quality materials, or is certainly a “cut above” the once only option of “volunteers” available to develop materials. This is also a great opportunity for adjuncts to supplement their supplemental income.

I have found that supplementing the classes where I use OERs, with my own developed material, offers students a well rounded learning experience, not to mention offering me great satisfaction that I have helped to save them money…while earning their degree.

Griffiths, R., Mislevy, J., Wang, S., Ball, A., Shear, L., Desrochers, D. (2020). OER at Scale: The Academic and Economic Outcomes of Achieving the Dream’s OER Degree Initiative. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.

Above added by Devorah Lucas, 3/23/23

The article I chose is

Transformative Expectations for Open Educational Resources

To better understand where we are today in terms of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and why educators are signing onto this pedagogical modality, it seems reasonable to look back at earlier predictions for digitally delivered education.

The journal article referenced below both forecasts and celebrates various forms of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)—including open educational resources, interactive media, and mobile technology—as solutions for society’s current and future teaching and learning challenges.

The author suggests that the wide availability of OERs in virtual learning environments would enable the decentralization of teaching settings and foster the ability to self-learn throughout the life span.

I don’t disagree with this premise, but I do recall the early days of the COVID pandemic when academic institutions closed campuses, and students were expected to continue to learn in a digital universe. Many of us discovered that not all students had reliable Internet connectivity—or computers—at their homes or places of employment. Therefore, the conversation on the egalitarian benefits of OERs and digital learning must take into account that not everyone has equal access to the necessary tools to function in a digital world.

The author also briefly mentions the need for basic digital skills, a factor that—in my experience—is often missing from discussions championing the digital delivery of education.

The article leaves me wondering what, in years to come, we can expect from open educational resources and their pedagogical efficacy.

References:

Melinte, E. E. (2012). THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES ON EDUCATION AND TRAINING. International Journal of Communication Research, 2(2), 104-106. Retrieved from https://proxy.yc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/impact-information-communication-technologies-on/docview/1114878493/se-2

Added by JoRita DeFrancesco, Communication, April 2, 2023.

My finding is an article called "Open Educational Resources: The Story of Change & Evolving Perceptions" by Mirela Roncevic. In this Roncevic highlights the predominantly evolving definition ease of discovery with regard to OER. This article offers insight into the idea that OER does not mean entirely free necessarily and certainly not free to those who back it financially. However, the article highlights that the growth of OER is essentially that it saves college students a significant amount of money over the course of their education. Like many of the points already made on this page, the author offers that librarians were essentially the first to facilitate OERs with access to databases and the access to shared books.

The article notes some cons of OER as the unequal access to technology, the notion of intellectual property rights, and the uncertainty about the accuracy of the information shared. However, the pros of OER certainly outweigh the cons in that it allows more equal access to education, allows access to more information for more people throughout the world and at a faster rate while also encouraging people to continue learning throughout their lives. Moreover, the article notes that all of the studies conducted regarding OER have suggested that there are no negative outcomes for the users. Students do, in fact, see greater engagement and learning with OER.

http://www.noshelfrequired.com/open-educational-resources/

Added by Jen Hawley on June 9, 2023.

Mod 1. Instructions

After reading the existing content on this History of OER page, research the Internet and find an example of research, policy, people, or events, etc. about OER or open pedagogy.
Write your own 150-250 word summary of what you found and add it to this page, and cite your source URL.
Describe your finding so that the reader can gain some understanding of why it's important.
Please include a date with your content.

Pros and Cons of Using OERs for Instruction

While there are many advantages of using OER’s, there are also some disadvantages to consider. These disadvantages should be considered to ensure a quality resource. While some disadvantages are obvious, there are several issues presented that I was unaware of. Suggested advantages include expanded access to learning. The ease of distribution and course modification. The ability to augment and enhance regular class material as well as increased student interaction with course resources along with quick circulation. The substantial cost reduction for students is a major talking point when looking at OERs. The ability for an instructor to directly edit the resource to fit their needs or make it available to others. There are other positives as well.

Some disadvantages are related around quality issues related to allowing users of some OERs to post material that may or may not be relevant or accurate. The article points out the additional amount of work that must be done by faculty, editors, instructional designers, and others to verify any accessibility or copyright issues. Another concern points out the possible lack of human interaction between teachers and students as well as cultural barriers due to the limited availability in languages other than English. Technological issues were also discussed, but this is an issue with any type of instructional material located online. The final point discussed sustainability issues since there may be little incentive for the creators to update their OER.

This article was more of a highlight of the pros and cons to OERs, but it does provide several good points that may need to be discussed prior to adoption of a given resource.

The University of Maryland Global Campus

https://libguides.umgc.edu/c.php?g=23404&p=138771

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. © 2020, UMGC.

Added 06/14/2023 By Michael May

OER has its roots in MERLOT created by the California State University in 1997. MERLOT was designed to identify and provide access to primarily free online curriculum materials for higher education. David Wiley, an assistant professor at Utah State University, proposed a license for free access to content as an alternative to paying for full copyright in 1998. Today, MERLOT contains over 40,000 curated items. Theses methods enabled college teachers to share intellectual content focused on teaching and learning while simultaneously making web-based and other educational materials open for anyone to use.

So what exactly is OER? The Hewlett Foundation defines OER as “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.”

David Wiley elaborated on the idea of the permissions granted to an educational resource by an open license:

‘The term “open content” describes any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is described by other terms like “open source”) that is licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:

Retain — the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
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)
Revise — the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
Remix — the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
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).’15

Submitted by Maureen Costa on 6/18/2023

Retrieved from A Brief History of Open Educational Resources - Ubiquity Press

https://www.ubiquitypress.com

The article I chose is from 2013, looking at comparing groups of students' growth in math specifically. The goal of this study was to see how OER could "provide greater access to learning resources at a lower price, without compromising student learning." By looking at withdrawal rates and how many students were able to earn a C or better in the courses in the study it seemed that students were still able to get a quality education still but at a fraction of the cost. Textbook savings were in excess of $250,000 over a semester and there was no real difference in student completion for 4 of the 5 studied classes. Students and faculty both found the material appropriate and applicable for work done in and out of class. This is a quick summary of that and there is extra discussion in the study on specifics, but overall it seems that without sacrificing quality OER can deliver much more accessible content for students. If nothing else, OER is a cheaper alternative for students to access required materials.

source: https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/irrodl/2013-v14-n4-irrodl05094/1066898ar.pdf

posted 6/20/23 by Leo Hartsock, article posted Sept 2013

While OER is now heavily reliant on the accessibility of the internet, the concept developed in the 70s when the internet was still in its primary stages and not widely available. It makes sense that librarians spearheaded this movement, as they have always managed the world of archives and research, and continue to expand these definitions for academia. This article highlights how the librarians have always had to navigate between the students and teachers, and OER has the potential to make these relationships more fluid. OER has the ability to evolve at a pace that textbooks can never keep up with, which is necessary with the amount of information that is circulated these days. The wide opportunities that OER provides also creates one of its challenges, as there is so much information to sift through for students and teachers alike. Overall, this article provides a nice timeline for how OER has progressed with the times and technology, in addition to equalizing the playing field in education for all.

source: http://www.noshelfrequired.com/open-educational-resources/

posted by Sheila Farr on 6/20/23

The article I read from 2020 discussed the impact of OER in teacher education. It focused on the dispersion of material to adults as learners rather than children. The main focus was the cost of textbooks and shifting to OER to lower costs and thus increase graduation rates of community college students specifically. The research subjects determined that many students were not prepared for the assignments and materials and were perpetually behind because they were waiting on textbooks to arrive. However, those students using OER materials were significantly more prepared and less behind later in the semester. OER made the content more easily accessible and affordable. The results of the study concluded that there was no significant difference in the course grades when using OER materials vs using a traditional textbook.

Because there were no adverse effects on grades it seems as though the benefits of OER are significant. The work required initially to put together an OER course is difficult. However, the benefits to the teachers and students far outweigh the disadvantages.

Cummings-Clay, D. (2020, December 31). Impact of OER in teacher education. Open Praxis. https://openpraxis.org/articles/10.5944/openpraxis.12.4.1112

Added 6/21/23 - Dani Larson

More than 100,000 students and instructors have created OpenStax accounts to access additional free resources associated with OpenStax textbooks since the spring -- an increase of more than 200 percent compared to the same period last year, said Baraniuk. OpenStax has also hosted more than 30 webinars since March that have attracted over 3,000 instructors who are interested in finding out more about OER.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/08/13/pandemic-drives-increased-interest-open-educational-resources

https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/impact-of-open-educational-resources/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw7uSkBhDGARIsAMCZNJshrvGMoU-ln0i_0LykaqLdu8zcKK_uSgogjqA6n0Tla_wXoXHyvIcaAnpnEALw_wcB

I chose to investigate the Online Learning Consortium Blog: Impacts of Open Educational Resources in which is referenced a study from the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education by Colvard and Watson. This study resulted in the finding that “students performed better in courses that used OERs” when compared to students who utilized more traditional methods. Ultimately the conclusion of the study was: “OER is an equity strategy for higher education: providing all students with access to course materials on the first day of class (and) serves to level the academic playing field in course settings…. institutions in higher education (need) to consider how to leverage OER to address completion, quality, and affordability challenges, especially those institutions that have higher percentages of Pell eligible, underserved, and/or part-time students than the institution presented in this study”

The reasonably comprehensive study itself references the amount of money actually saved by students through the adoption of OER materials. It can be found here: 7-IJTLHE 3386 (isetl.org) In addition, the results appear to substantiate the idea that not only does academic performance improve for all of the students included in the study through the use of OER material, but also that underserved students benefit greatly by its adoption.

Clearly it is of great importance for online instructors in particular to consider these findings since OER is a hot topic in current conversations and because we are all seeking way in which to minimize the financial impacts of a college education. Moreover, concerns about the quality of educational material provided to students and the degree to which well-chosen OER learning assets actually help to improve overall academic performance are fairly rigorously addressed in this type of research.

Contributed by K.D. Borcoman 6/26/2023

Over the past seven years, the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement has made remarkable progress in promoting accessible and collaborative learning materials. While specific milestones related to island, expat, and foreign learning in the English and Spanish-speaking areas of the Caribbean may be relatively limited, the overall advancements in the OER movement have had an impact on these contexts as well.

Influential individuals have played a vital role in propelling the OER movement forward. Sir John Daniel, an esteemed expert in open and distance learning, has been a strong advocate for using OER to expand educational access, particularly in developing regions. Another notable figure is Dr. Cable Green, who has actively raised awareness about OER and has worked towards policy changes that support its adoption.

Significant events in the OER movement have included the widespread adoption of open licensing frameworks, such as Creative Commons licenses. These licenses allow educators to share their resources openly while retaining control over their copyrights. Additionally, there has been growing recognition among governments and educational institutions of the benefits of OER, leading to the formulation of policies and initiatives that promote its use.

Regarding specific examples related to OER or open pedagogy in adult language learning within the Caribbean, it's important to acknowledge that research on this topic may be limited. However, one notable example is the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), which oversees secondary education in the Caribbean. The CXC has embraced OER by providing open access to past papers, syllabi, and other educational resources through their online platform. This initiative allows adult learners preparing for language exams to access affordable and high-quality learning materials, enabling them to enhance their language skills through self-study.

Date: June 26, 2023

Source: Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) website - https://www.cxc.org/

Added - Lamar Johnson

As someone who has been in higher education for about 30 years, and seen the progression from text-book driven education to one of utilizing a plethora of general on-line resources to engage and stimulate student learning I chose to find a publication on the origins of OER, leading me to my referred publication entitled “Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of OER” a rather exhaustive 141 page read compiled by CERI. This largely presents the thinking of the early driving forces for OER circa 2000. Some interesting tidbits I derived from this publication included the driving forces for OER. “The development of the information society and the widespread diffusion of information technology give rise to new opportunities for learning. Higher educational institutions have been using the Internet and other digital technologies to develop and distribute education for several years. The open educational resource (OER) movement aims to break down barriers and to encourage and enable freely sharing content.”

Another key attribute of this study, that I found personally compelling as an instructor is the early concepts of accessibility and utilization, “Since the concept of OER builds on the idea of reusing and repurposing materials, interoperability is a key issue. Learning resources need to be searchable across repositories and possible to download, integrate and adapt across platforms. Open standards makes this possible.

Overall, this publication posited the early drivers toward the development of OER and was a good resource.

(CERI), Center for Educational Research and Innovation (2007). Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources

Links to an external site. (PDF). Executive Summary (What are open educational resources?): Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). p. 10. ISBN Links to an external site. 978-92-64-03174-6

Links to an external site.

Added by: Holly Huffman on 7/2/23

OER at Scale

In 2020, Achieve the Dream (ATD) completed their OER Degree Initiative which began in 2016. ATD worked with 38 community colleges to offer 6,600 OER courses over the course of two and a half years. The initiative was trying to answer the question whether it is possible to scale OER in an institution. The ultimate answer was no single faculty member can scale OER throughout an institution. The up-front time needed to develop OER materials and courses is enormous, and so for institutions asking faculty to simply volunteer often results in a failure to launch any OER initiative. To help reduce the workload for faculty, it is best to have well-defined policies and procedure to guide OER course development as well as having institutional supports that can identify OER materials and best practices in OER course development.

Providing faculty OER training also increases the scalability of OER throughout an institution. However, the initiative found that the number of faculty engagement in these trainings fell as the study went on over the two and a half years. The study attributed this to the number of shared OER courses. Faculty who used an already developed OER course did not feel the need to be trained on OER practices and philosophy. But, if a faculty member taught an OER course, they were less likely to teach that same course as a traditional course.

The most interesting statistic is that is takes 180 hours on average to develop an OER course. That is just over 4 work weeks!

Overall, OER still has some issues - time and financial costs - that still prevent the initiative from becoming scalable across an entire institution. It is best to target which courses and students in which to deploy as OER.

Griffiths, R., Mislevy, J., Wang, S., Ball, A., Shear, L., Desrochers, D. (2020). OER at Scale: The Academic and Economic Outcomes of Achieving the Dream’s OER Degree Initiative. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International. https://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/5e38136b-d07a-4e6c-bfdb-b4c8f2e5a622

Above added by Sarah Southwick on 07/19/23.

Thoughts from OER-experienced Educators

While the term OER/Open Educational Resources was coined "by the UNESCO’s Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries" (Otto) in 2002, and has since become common pedagogical knowledge, implementation of OER still lags in higher education. Although numerous studies have researched OER's effectiveness—including those mentioned by my peers, above—few researchers have focused on the reasoning behind adoption of OER by its active practitioners.

In 2020, Dr. Daniel Otto brought together a survey-then-focus group of experienced OER educators to fill in this knowledge gap. Survey and subsequent focus group participants were gathered via qualitative connections based on established OER research, attendance of OER conferences, and/or colleagues' suggestions for inclusion. It was a qualitative group, however, in order to participate in the survey participants were also vetted based on employment at a higher education institution, teaching activities, use of OER, and engagement in the 5R activities of OER. 41 participants filled out the survey, with 20 ultimately participating in the 4-hour focus group discussion.

Dr. Otto's survey and focus group research indicate a series of measures that lead to adoption of OER in higher education, organized by impact. From the survey, the three highest impact measures are:

Free legal advice for teachers to create and use OER.
Development of a cross-institutional metasearch engine for OER.
Funding programmes for the creation of OER.

List elements above, credit Daniel Otto

Compulsory training and obligating the use of OER materials ranked low in terms of positive impact (leading to practical adoption of OER).

During the focus group, the aspect of "quality control" of OER materials was dominant. Many of the OER practitioners stated that one aspect of OER adoption that is under-discussed is the need for feedback on OER materials. Peer review was mentioned as a possibility in order to ensure quality standards in OER. The conclusion of the discussion was that in order to increase use of OER in higher education, systems of support need to be developed.

Otto, Daniel. “How to Promote the Use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education. A Parley with OER Experienced Teachers.” 2021. Open Praxis, vol. 13, no. 4, International Council for Open and Distance Education, 2021, pp. 354–364, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.485420499654944.

Above added by Lindsay Masten, July 23, 2023.

Here is an article that I found related to "Open Educational Resources and Intellectual Property Rights"

https://oro.open.ac.uk/28784/1/oer_and_ipr.pdf

This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. I may have ranted a bit here but want to point out a frustration to everyone and a different point of view.

The topic that I decided to address regarding OER or open educational resources, is that of intellectual property. This is an area that I am extremely concerned about in conjunction with academic freedom. As education strives to streamline more and more, I feel we are on a pathway of a slippery slope of potentially losing intellectual property and academic freedom. What has made me, what I feel as a good instructor, is not so much the fact of my educational background, but rather my real-world experiences of practicing what I teach. Through items such as my wilderness medical experiences, patient management, practicing as a sports medicine practitioner, continuing education, life experiences etc. I am able to tie in the things that I teach to real life. These kinds of things were not paid for by my employer, much of this time I did as a volunteer etc. with no monetary compensation whatsoever. Why should my institution and others be allowed to benefit from my hard work? I feel that this should 100% be the faculty’s and or staff’s decision on what he or she would like to share with the world.

Per our policy here at YC (2.07) “Faculty Created Work”, we own our created works such as lectures, labs etc. See policy 2.07 that is copied below.

“In the case of scholarly works, including course materials, the College cedes copyright ownership to the author/creator(s). Scholarly works include, but are not limited to, course syllabi, instruction materials (textbooks and course materials), distance learning works, journal articles, research bulletins, lectures, monographs, plays, poems, literary works, works for art (pictorial, graphic, sculptural, or other artistic creation), computer/software programs, electronic works, sound recordings, musical compositions, and similar creations. Intellectual property created during a sabbatical is defined as a scholarly work unless defined differently in an addendum to a specific sabbatical plan agreed to by the faculty member and Vice President of Academic Affairs. Typical sabbatical plans do not require the use of substantial college/university resources. Payment of salary per se does not constitute a significant use of college resources.”

So how does OER play into this policy?

There seems to be a push to eliminate this policy and practice. I am not opposed to sharing but it should be my option. It seems like a collaborative program would be a much better way. Something like release time to work in conjunction with full time faculty staff and adjuncts to establish best practices, exchange of ideas and overall increase student success. Not something that should be forced upon us through practices such as performance goal setting, your class not being listed a certain way in the registration, or other punitive practices that we use here at YC like receiving a stipend to complete a course then having to sign over your content. Yet this is what we practice at YC.

There have been multiple times If I have been overloaded and rather than allowing me to teach another course, I have had on multiple occasions s course shell flat out plagiarized and used to include utilizing my course labs, exams, and even my you tube lectures without my permission at all. This is not okay and the main reason why I am 100% opposed to the move we are making. Not because I am against OER but rather a huge proponent of intellectual property. In both my experiences my hard work and creativity took money out of my pockets and my family’s income, and made it super stupid easy for someone else that did not have the experience, knowledge and training that I do to make a very easy buck. I ask you how is this fair?

In closing perhaps the Open University stated it the best “letting other people use materials you have produced means that you have the right to let people take your content (Patrick & Cropper, 2011, Pg. 3).” In other words it really needs to be your decision and not something that is forced upon you. Again, I would like to emphasis that OER is a good thing, but we cannot force it and it must be a choice with no punishment whatsoever. We need to be leaders in innovation and come up with collaborative ways to move this forward.

I hope that I do not offend anyone in this course but have been an instructor for a long time and see a huge potential problem here at YC that needs to be addressed.

Thanks

Josh Schmidt

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Although not your standard empirical peer-reviewed publication, Elrod & Strouse (2022) outline their account of the path to deploying resources, Open Teaching Tools, to aid in the deployment of Open Educational Resources (OER) in their nursing program. It is this deviation from the status quo that drew my attention as it is specific to my area of teaching but also presents the information in a simplified manner that clearly outlines their process. The authors note that starting is the hardest part of OER, which suggests the need for an aid that walks you through the buildout process. Additionally, their development and deployment utilized a team approach which included the library staff (Elrod & Strouse, 2022).

Upon analyzing data from the Open Teaching Tool, they identified that this resource for OER development in nursing programs was accessed via 550 institutions via >4,000 downloads (Elrod & Strouse, 2022). Collectively this suggests vast interest in OER and how to go about its use in programs that have accreditation and national standards to meet. The potential for collaboration and material development is endless in the OER network, something that undoubtedly pushes the boundaries of pedagogy and academia. With this likely comes uncertainty and push-back, however the goals of educators are likely similar. One such goal is student success and impact. If educators work collaboratively then the impact goes beyond those that are sitting in one classroom.

Elrod, G. B., & Strouse, S. M. (2022). Establishing Open Teaching Tools: A Faculty Journey With Open Educational Resources. Nurse educator, 47(5), E120–E121. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNE.0000000000001222

Added by Trevor Nordin 8/23/2023

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The Pros of Open Education:

If you are new to OER, like me, the articles and links below provide helpful resources/tools for educators to use and share to enhance their effectiveness online and in the classroom. These links provide access to a collection of shareable course materials, including syllabi, course activities, readings, and assessments designed by teams of college faculty, instructional designers, librarians, and other experts. I found the Basic Guide and video webinars, clips, and handouts useful.

A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources

This is a free eBook from UNESCO

CCCOER Webinars

Discover how other community colleges are adopting and creating OER via 20 minute webinars.

Guidelines for open educational resources (OER) in higher education

"Given the potential of OER to improve higher education systems, UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) have developed these Guidelines, after broad consultations with stakeholders in all regions of the world, to support governments, higher education institutions/providers, academic staff, student bodies and quality assurance/accreditation and recognition bodies."

Learning about OER [videoclip]
OER Handbook for Educators

"Welcome to the world of Open Educational Resources (OER). This handbook is designed to help educators find, use, develop and share OER to enhance their effectiveness online and in the classroom."

Source: https://felician.libguides.com/OER

Thank you, Jamie Volker (8/25/23)

Without doubt OER will enhance both teaching and learning in sub-Saharan regions where cost of education is not a joke. Even though OER appears to be the academic messiah in Africa, significant of educators perceives it more as a curse or additional challenges that can compromise the quality of education. The arguments go beyond the richness of available OER, several scholars and educators are still concerned with validation and quality of these resources.

Uses of OER can also get a push back in non-English speaking region, the process of translation can distort relevant information can be misleading and cause more damages than intended. Cost of accessing these OER for proper uses is primary headache for both scholars and educators in sub-Saharan nations. Authors conducted a thorough empirical study in various Kenyan High Schools, the teachers from these schools were empowered with resources and coaching for teaching high-schoolers.

Researchers discovered the need for a better structured approach that would better channel available OER to both scholars and educators that needed it. Authors showcased that enthusiastic educators are eager to know the impacts of OER on student’s performances and how they align with curriculum learning outcomes.

References

Orwenjo, D. O., & Erastus, F. K. (2021). Teachers’ perceptions of open educational resources: The case of open resources for english language teaching (ORELT) in kenya. Journal of Learning for Development, 8(3), 582-600. https://doi.org/10.56059/jl4d.v8i3.529

Aderemi Adedokun 08/26/2023.

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Open Pedagogy: A Systematic Review of Empirical Findings

In the Journal of Learning for Development, Virginia Clinton-Lisell (2021) conducted a systematic review of current Open Pedagogy (OP) research. Her intent was to discuss relevant research currently out there (as of 2021) to evaluate the status and current thoughts on open pedagogy, and then infer where future research efforts should focus. In this review, Clinton-Lisell (2021) discussed both positives and negatives currently in play for this type of educational format. Positives included cost savings and engagement of students in their learning process. Negatives included, as of publication, inequities in social justice and social representation. The positives seem to stand out as obvious, but regarding the negatives, Clinton-Lisell (2021) considers fair points as open pedagogy is technology intensive including the need for a consistent connection to the internet, and primarily driven from North America and Western Europe. Based on this, she infers that open pedagogy research needs to be conducted that looks at cultural and economic biases.

Clinton-Lisell (2021) created three questions to drive her review including:

What are the commonalities and differences in the concept of open pedagogy across studies?
What were the findings of open pedagogy studies focusing on students?
What were the findings of open pedagogy studies focusing on educators?

Based on these questions, 20 studies were included, and themes were developed. As related to students, the findings included a positive perception of OP and a sense of pride that their work was no longer disposable and could be used to further future endeavors. Additionally, students claimed better critical thinking skills developed through evaluating resources, and in getting and giving peer feedback.

Faculty also embraced the cost savings and ability to engage students with other than disposable assignments, but voiced concerns for student privacy, the quality of student created resources and lack of institutional support for OP.

In her conclusion, Clinton-Lisell (2021) summarized that students and faculty are mostly positive about the future of OP, but more research needs to be conducted and attempts need to be made to make this format more accessible to different cultures and students in lower socioeconomic environments.

Clinton-Lisell, Virginia. (2021). Open Pedagogy: A systematic Review of Empirical Findings. Journal of Learning for Development, Volume 8(2), pp. 255-268. Accessed August 24, 2023 from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1314199.pdf

Added by Randolph Derr on August 27, 2023

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When beginning research on this topic, I came across an article titled, “Extending the territory: From open educational resources to open educational practices”. The title was intriguing as it would seem that the resources could lead to more educational practices that could include professional development as well as courses to augment student studies. I was surprised; however, when prompted to buy the full article for $19.95. I then continued my research and realized how students must feel when hit with these additional fees. The article that I used is titled, “Measuring Use and Creation of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education” by Ross McKerlich, Cindy Ives and Rory McGrea. I found this article interesting because it deals not only with the use and availability of OER but with the creation of OER. It discusses that OER can increase the emotional ownership for both the user of the resource and those who created it. The article talks about the use and how it is increasing and can be found in many different sources from tutorials to textbooks. This article cites a study of college instructors that create OER materials stating that academic quality and course team support would increase the number of OER created. Although interesting based upon the source, it would almost seem that this is an educational best practice for the creation of any material or resource. In summary, the key takeaway from this article was (although this was an earlier study of OER) that OER will provide true benefits to students, teachers and society.

https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/irrodl/2013-v14-n4-irrodl05094/1066901ar.pdf

Added by Brenda Lee on 8/28/2023

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Creating equitable access: Using OER for socially just educational leaders is a 2022 peer reviewed article that delves into the importance of exposing and educating teachers and educational leaders about the importance of OER while they are preparing to become educators or educational administrators. Although OER was introduced in 2002 there has been limited usage of the modality in K-12 schools. The authors relate this to the educators’ limitations with OER. These include limited personal use, narrow understanding of the benefits of OER, and the legality and intricacies of OER (Richardson & Sakho, 2022). Through learning, using, and creating a OER course themselves as part of their preparatory coursework, these educators better understood the effectiveness of OER related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DIEB) at their institutions (Richardson & Sakho, 2022).

When inequitable practices are deconstructed through new modalities such as OER, educators and students become more readily equipped to address DIEB directly. When this is embraced in K-12, this will impact the local community colleges and universities as well. Underserved and underfunded students will have the opportunity early in their education to access knowledge and will be more likely and prepared to move into higher education with the expectation that they will have greater access than their predecessors to the learning resources as courses also become more accessible.

Reference:

Richardson, S. and Roebuck Sakho, J. (2022), "Creating equitable access: using OER for socially just educational leaders", Journal for Multicultural Education, Vol. 16 No. 5, pp. 443-455. https://doi.org/10.1108/JME-12-2021-0224 https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JME-12-2021-0224/full/html

Added by Stephenie Snodgrass on 8/29/23

Giving Knowledge for Free: the Emergence of Open Educational Resources

Dr. Hylén sent out a questionnaire/survey in 2007 to instructors and researchers to gain knowledge on initiatives in place to support the use of OER. It is well known that cost is a financial hardship for many and OER provides a way that enables students to enroll in classes and have available resources to succeed in school. There are many other challenges to consider when discussing the role OER has on education. With the advances in technology individuals and institutions can improve the way information is shared. But how does policy and our government play a part in OER and its success or failure. The cost of education has risen dramatically over the past decade. This issue is common in many countries. Taxpayers frequently fund educational material and research through the Department of Labor and education, among other entities, for public institutions. All resources are not completely free. Some believe the use of OER can expand access to learning for everyone, mostly for non-traditional groups of students and can promote lifelong learning that would otherwise be unattainable to many. This could potentially have a positive economic impact on society, as well as individually. Sharing and reusing resources can reduce costs and possibly improve quality of content. Sharing of knowledge is also in line with academic traditions. There are many implications for policies, including copyright legislation and willingness to share information openly. Providing funds to institutions, both public and private, technology support, licensing and help in standardizing resources.

GIVING KNOWLEDGE FOR FREE: THE EMERGENCE OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES – ISBN-978-92-64-03174-6 © OECD 2007

Added Catherine Kefer 08/29/2023

Bridging the Accessibility Gap in Open Educational Resources

I found this article of interest because this is one of the biggest drawbacks from Open Educational Resources is the lack of accessibility for learners with disabilities. The article provided solutions for assisting those with disabilities and finding resources that learners with a disability can still utilize. The article suggested user profiles designates their learning disability and how to match resources with the learners so they can get the full potential of using the resources (Navarrete, 2018). There is a specific OER web sites which is focused on the design, and they tested different disabilities to make sure the design is up to par for those with disabilities and aligns with the Universal standards. The article did express the need for a more open education resources which comply with universal standards and make sure all learners can learn at the same level.

Navarrete, R., Luján-Mora, S. Bridging the accessibility gap in Open Educational Resources. Univ Access Inf Soc 17, 755–774 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-017-0529-9

Added by Nick Bergan 8/31/2023

Open Educational Resources: The Story of Change and Evolving Perceptions

This article by by Mirela Roncevic examines the history of Open education resources (OER) and outlines important points of of OER to potential users. OER was first introduced in the 1970s as an alternative to increasing textbook costs experienced by students in that period. It has expanded into a domain of it's own today with cost saving advantages to address the continued sharp escalation in paper texts. These open resources, so called for their open license for end users, offer a less expensive alternative and immediate access to their electronic media. Teachers have access to use and edit most material at will and students have unlimited access for study and download to multiple devices. Of note, the author points out that some texts may have their validity questioned related to sources used by their authors if reproduced from online resources. Their are many OER databases though, that have valid OERs available.

In today's tech savvy environment, paper texts may be on their way to the museum. Many students prefer the portability of online material and resources available to use on their device of choice. Because many students were raised with advanced functioning phones, tablets, and computers, this may be the future trend. In the face of tech savvy adult learners, it is bewildering that paper texts continue to escalate in price. Their publishers must be compensating for declining sales related to online material but they maybe sealing their own fate, chasing institutions in the direction of less expensive or free OER. There is apparent value in OER for obvious affordability in comparison to paper texts and in the portability that it affords to end users.

Roncevic, M., (March, 2022). Open educational resources: The story of change and evolving perceptions.

Retrieved from: http://www.noshelfrequired.com/open-educational-resources/

Added 9/17/23 by Edward Miranda

The History and Future of OER in Academic Libraries

According to the article I read OER resources refer to “digital educational materials that anyone anywhere can use freely and legally, including the user’s right to copy, share, enhance and/or modify them for the purposes of sharing knowledge and enabling education.” While there are plenty of OER resources available on the web, finding credible and reliable resources can be a challenge for the library community.

OERs began popping up in the early 1970s and have since evolved thanks to librarians, catalogers and volunteers who aim to create viable resources including more modern, specialized OERs. According to Roncevic, the College Board reports undergraduates spend an average of $1,200 annually on textbooks, making affordability a huge concern, and the boom in OERs is directly correlated to the increase in college textbook costs.

While OERs have many benefits they’re widely available, provide affordability for students, promote self-learning, and allow for the reach of many learners at the same time there are a few concerns that the article mentions.

The main concerns of OERs include the validity of the resources, the idea of intellectual property, or “fair use,” and the difficulty for users in easily being able to find and utilize the OERs.

Retrieved from: http://www.noshelfrequired.com/open-educational-resources/

Added above by: Ashley Crawley 9/24/2023

Colette Marks

OER History

The article I located regarding the history of Open Education Resources (OER) is

actually a chapter from a journal compilation. The text is titled, “Radical Solutions and

Open Science.” The section describing OER is titled "Who Benefits from the Public Good?

How OER Is Contributing to the Private Appropriation of the Educational Commons,” and is

edited by Daniel Burgos. To summarize the section on OER history, one must travel back to

1945, while World War II was still being fought. An individual by the name of Vannevar

Bush, the then Director of the Scientific Director of the Office of Scientific Research and

Development for the US Government was responsible for directing the technology efforts of the

Nation (Burgos 70). In an essay immediately following the war, Bush laid out the diagram of a

new system of technological architectural innovation. The system consisted of

multiple terminals freely sharing information. This system grew from an essay into a

functioning large mainframe in the 1960s, eventually diminishing in size to the personal

terminals we now know as personal computers. While the size of the computer

diminished, the size of the internet and the vast amounts of information a PC could access grew

exponentially both in the commercial and educational fields (Burgos 70). Institutions began

implementing programs, and in the year 2001, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Instituting an online education program became a forerunner to online education (Burgos 71).

The next year, the terminology of the OER was consolidated during an educational forum

during a United Nations conference (Burgos 71).

Burgos, Daniel, editor. “Radical Solutions and open science.” Lecture Notes in Educational Technology, 2020, pp. 70–72, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4276-3.

OPEN RESOURCES IN AN AGE OF CONTINGENCY

It's important to remember that “free” is not possible. Don’t think for a second that Lumen isn’t making money off of students’ “free.” Blackboard (the LMS) is a major funder in OER resources, which of course will need to be hosted on an LMS (hmmm…any come to mind?) Someone, somewhere (many someones, many somewheres) make money off of Open Educational Resources, and it is not the faculty whose education, time, and talent have made up the bulk of the products. OER is one of many current slaps in the face to people’s intellectual property.

Textbook costs are exorbitant, and we do need alternatives to the $300 book, but what cost is free? Textbooks are peer reviewed. OER materials in their ever-changing and adaptable way, can promote disinformation.

Forcing students to read only on a screen can hinder learning for some students. While accessibility is essential (and screen readers and other types of electronic texts are obviously more suited to some learners), online reading is not the best option for all students. OER materials prevent the tactile experience that enhances reading, perhaps especially for returning students who are not digital natives.

Another concern with OER is the exploitation of faculty talent, time, and education, and the forcing of faculty, especially adjunct and contingent faculty, to use OER materials. This is an academic freedom issue at minimum. Mandated OER shells with the same content from section to section turn teachers into facilitators. The lack of compensation for faculty brainpower exploits higher ed’s most precious resource – its professors.

Phillips, A. (2018, January 30). Open Resources in an Age of Contingency. Inside Higher Ed.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2018/01/31/oer-movement-poses-risks-time-and-resource-starved-contingent#:

Laraine Herring, 10/20/23

I researched OER events, and found a link to UW Bothell and Cascadia College Campus library. There were a few links to assist librarians in finding OER resources; such as the Pacific Northwest OER directory and the OER subject guides from Tacoma Community College. There was even a OER Twitter Stream link. That's pretty cool!

Then was there was a list of five OER conferences and links to them. For example, The Open Education Global Conference which addresses Unesco's OER recommendations: Capacity Building, Policy, Access, Sustainability and International Cooperation. This conference is for the global community, and I bet would be very interesting. I wonder, if around the globe they are having the same obstacles we are, and how they are overcoming them.

Another conference listed was the Textbook Affordability Conference. This conference's mission is to bring together higher educators and work together to create OER content.

One last calendar event noted on this web page was an Open Ed day for faculty, staff and guests. This was a half day, in person workshop. I think something like this would be very helpful for YC. Maybe at the end of each semester, in preparation for the next one, when faculty are scrambling to build course content and locate resources.

As new faculty to YC, the task of building my own course content and finding resources with OER is overwhelming. So this page was interesting to me. I appreciate that YC does have support in this area.

Open Educational Resources Guide: News & Events

https://guides.lib.uw.edu/bothell/open/events updated 10/17/2023

Posted by Tanya Ghanni 10/24/2023

A Social Injustice in Education

Ask a college student, a faculty member, and the college president to explain the advantages of open pedagogy and OER and they will probably provide you with different answers. The student may explain the expense of traditional textbooks versus the free access to OER textbooks. A faculty member may describe the benefit of being able to design or remix textbooks that are more relatable to their student population. The college president may recite statistics demonstrating higher student enrollment, retention, and graduation rates. All of these are excellent reasons to join the OER movement, however, another reason to consider is the issue of social justice.

Jenkins et al. (2020) examined OER from a social justice perspective. The researchers explored the impact of affordability between traditional textbooks and OER among underserved students (i.e., first-generation students, low-income students, and minority students). The researchers conceded that the high cost of textbooks can be an educational burden for a majority of college students, however, such burdens and barriers were significantly disproportionate among underserved students. The researchers reported that due to the cost of the textbook, 65% of the study’s under-served students did not purchase the textbook, 80% did not have the textbook on the first day of class, 27% avoided taking the class, and 12% dropped the class.

Based on the results of the study conducted by Jenkins et al. (2020) lack of access to required traditional textbooks is an issue of social justice in education. The high cost of traditional textbooks can be a financial, emotional, and educational detriment to under-served students. As higher education institutions look for ways to increase student enrollment, student retention, and graduation rates, particularly among under-served students, they should consider the benefits and advantages of OER.

Reference

Jenkins, J. J., Sánchez, L. A., Schraedley, M. A., Hannans, J., Navick, N., & Young, J. (2020). Textbook broke: Textbook affordability as a social justice issue. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 1(3), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.549

Above from Alexandrea Stritmatter, Ph.D. 10/25/2023

SPARC OER State Policy Tracker

Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), a non-profit advocacy organization advocates for policies at the local, national and international level that supports systems for research and education. They believe that everyone should be able to access and contribute to knowledge. SPARC’s belief that education is essential to advancing society and everyone should be able to access and contribute to the knowledge that shapes the world, directs their membership. SPARCs membership includes about 250 libraries and academic organizations throughout North America.

Open Educational Resources (OER), has at its foundation teaching, learning, and research resources that are free and doesn’t have barriers to access. OER carries legal permission for open use. An open license allows anyone to use, adapt and share the educational resource. This legal permission is usually defined by the “5Rs” which are “free to retain, reuse, revise, remix and redistribute.” By expanding education opportunities through open education via the internet, students can find information that they need instantly, on any topic at no cost.

Systems of sharing information in education are slow to catch up with technology. Outdated publishing models are seen as a large part of the problem, with their restrictive dissemination of educational resources. The costs of textbooks have risen rapidly and unfortunately for many students leaves them without the access to the required course materials. Although there are digital textbooks from book publishers, they have many use restrictions, access expiration dates, and high costs to the students. OER offers more affordable, up to date and effective teaching and learning via technology and the Internet.

Over half of the U.S. states have considered OER legislation and this trend is growing. State legislators are looking to make college education more affordable and successful realize the benefit of open education resources and practices. Therefore, they are looking at OER more and more. SPARC provides a website that offers a OER state policy tracker. The tracker is updated weekly during the legislative season. The tracker publishes the latest state by state policy related to OER and the SPARC community.

SPARC (2023). OER State Policy Tracker. https://sparcopen.org/our-work/state-policy-tracking/

SPARC (2023) Who We Are. https://sparcopen.org/who-we-are/

Added by Susan Smith 10/31/2023

OERTheLinks to an external site.