D.I.Y O.E.R: So You Have Been Tasked with Making Your Course OER, Now What?

by Wendy Torres
Twitter handle: @Tech_snacks
Senior Instructional Technologist
E-mail: wvelez-torres@coppin.edu

For a text listing of all the links in this presentation in the order they appear click here:
https://tinyurl.com/ydymqetn

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What are Open Educational Resources?

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-Open Educational Resources(OERs) are free online teaching and learning materials.
-They are videos, textbooks, quizzes, learning modules and more.
-OERs are documents and media that are: freely accessible, openly licensed, and affordable.
-Open Educational Resources are licensed using Creative Common Licenses.  
-Open textbooks are available online to be freely used with an open license but can also be printed at a low cost.

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Why should you consider using Open Educational Resources (OERs)?

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Text books are expensive. "The average cost of a textbook has risen by 73% since 2006, or four times that of U.S. inflation rates." 

-The use of OERs has shown to increase student learning while breaking down barriers of affordability and accessibility.

- Feldstein et al. (2012) conducted a research study at Virginia State University, where OER were implemented across nine different courses in the business department.
-Researchers found that students in courses that used OER more frequently had better grades and lower failure and withdrawal rates than their counterparts in courses that did not use OER.

-According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 in 10 students didn’t purchase a textbook because it was too expensive.
One in five college students has skipped or deferred a class due to the price of the required learning resources.
60% of students have delayed purchasing textbooks until they’ve received their financial aid.

Three types of Open Courses you can offer students

1) Fully OER: All material in course is licensed under Creative Commons Licenses ( or Public Domain) and openly available over an Internet Connection. Material follows the 5 Rs: Reuse, Revise, Remix Redistribute ,Retain

2) OER low cost: Most of the material is openly licensed. Some material like a textbook or add-ons, however may not be free, but the cost to the student cannot exceed $40 total for course materials. If the textbook is low cost but not Openly Licensed, then you cannot say the course is OER low cost.

Three types of Open Courses you can offer students

3) Z-courses( Zero cost to student) : Material in the course contains both Openly licensed material as well as paid subscription services. Remember, OER content has to follow the 5r (reuse, revise, remix, redistribute and retain)

Paid subscription services like databases or video repositories are paid by the institution and are not open to the public. However, the students do not have to pay to use the services.

If you have this kind of course, you need to make sure you attribute the materials and abide by the licensing regulations of the subscription services. Note, however, that this course cannot be listed or classified as an OER course.

•While there is plenty of research and case studies about how OERs help save students money and have many benefits, one of the main obstacles to implementing OERs in your courses is TIME.
•So here is a roadmap to implementation for individual courses.