This online workshop provides an introduction to how you might consider leveraging the power of Open Educational Resources (OER) in your teaching. From simply using what others have created and released with an open license, to adapting to create a more customized version for your teaching purpose, or creating something new and contributing it to the commons, this workshop will help equip you with the foundational knowledge needed to take that first step in to the open education movement.
Imagine that you are a university student with a part-time job. It’s the start of the semester, and you’ve got important decisions to make about your budget. Some of the required textbooks are expensive, and you think it might be worth the cost savings of not buying the book. Or perhaps you’re an instructor who is having difficulty finding a textbook that suits your course. The only textbook you’ve found is outdated and not quite relevant to your course’s learning objectives.
In both of these situations, OER can be helpful.This module is divided into three sections. They contain activities both for testing your knowledge and for starting your own curated OER collection that will hopefully be of use in your courses.
This entire module is intended to act as a model for how to use, adapt, and combine OER and how to attribute their creators. We have purposefully included OER in different formats so that you can see the range of possibilities available to you. Before getting into all of these creative elements, let’s first explore the topic of OER.
By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:
The Global Open Educational Resources Logo is licensed by UNESCO under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 International License.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. Review this UNESCO resource for more indepth research and applications of OER.
The ‘open’ in OER means that the resources are not only free of cost, but also come with reuse rights, typically granted through an open copyright license such as Creative Commons.
Assigning an open license to a resource allows others to engage with that resource in ways that are not otherwise allowed (due to copyright restrictions). From simply correcting typos or grammatical errors to more involved activities such as updating the content for local contexts (disciplinary, institutional or geographic) or adding up-to-date research, OER allow educators to adapt and tailor educational materials as they wish.
“Open licenses help grease the gears of collaboration by making it clear what you can and cannot do with the creative work of others.” – William Menke
A common misconception about OER is that they are simply free resources. While free is one aspect, how the resource is licensed is equally important. For resources to be considered OER, they must be openly licensed. This means that the permissions traditionally protected by copyright are proactively communicated to users, frequently though not exclusively through the use of Creative Commons licenses.
Put simply, open licenses such as Creative Commons (CC) permit creators to retain copyright but tell others how they can use and adapt their work. Advocates of OER frequently discuss open licensing in the context of the “5 R” activities, i.e. an open license is one that gives users permissions to Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix and/or Redistribute the content.
At the core of nearly all CC licenses is the Attribution (BY) component, requiring all who reuse your work to provide full attribution to you. Additional terms can be combined into Creative Commons licenses so that you can share your work with different conditions for reuse. Review the following video about the Creative Commons for more knowledge on the topic.
You can explore the Creative Commons licenses in greater detail in the following slideshow presentation.
Open educational resources are just one part of a global open education movement seeking to promote and support more equitable and sustainable education for all. A broader term, open educational practices (OEP), includes the use of OER as well as open pedagogy and open sharing of teaching practices. Openness, in all these forms, has many benefits for educators, learners, educational institutions and wider communities.
Note: This content was adapted from OER/OEP resources for CELT, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Centre for Excellence in Learning & Teaching, National University of Ireland, Galway.
Now that you are familiar with what OER are and why they are important for learners, educators, post-secondary institutions and other individuals, we invite you to consider – why are OER important to you and/or your teaching? You can use this Padlet activity to add your reflection on this question. Feel free to embed other links, readings, resources on OER, or an image that perhaps represents your thoughts.
You can click and write right on this Padlet below, or open it up in a new window.
One of the biggest barriers to OER adoption and use is finding the right resource. In this topic, we will look at some McMaster-specific resources that will help you in your search, and some additional strategies to fine tune what can be an overwhelming number of results. We will also look at how you can evaluate the OER you’ve curated for possible inclusion in your teaching.
McMaster’s OER LibGuide: with a specific call-out to the “OER Collections” tab
Subject-specific Collections:
Please download and save a copy of this OER Worksheet to complete as you work through the OER workshop material. You can use this worksheet to evaluate OER for use in your teaching.
In this section, we will look at how you involve yourself in the open movement through the creation of OER and what important considerations you need to make. We will introduce one small example of how you can find, adapt and create OER through eCampusOntario’s H5P Studio. Review the following videos and slide show.
The final piece in this workshop is for you to actually work with finding, using and/or creating OER. We’ve elected to provide you with some options outlined below, as well as some additional resources.
Complete one of the following:
Find and curate three OER within a topic area .
Create your own OER using eCampusOntario’s H5P Studio.
Congratulations on completing a module in the MacPherson Institute Learning Catalogue!
We hope you found the experience meaningful and relevant to your teaching and learning practice. As part of our ongoing effort to improve and grow the Learning Catalogue, we invite you to take just a few minutes to complete a short reflection form.
We know your time is valuable, and we deeply appreciate your willingness to share your thoughts.