Image for Module 1

Module Image Credit: Untitled image by harishs on Pixabay / Available under a Pixabay license

Warm-Up Activity

Please watch this video and complete the following questionnaire before viewing the pre-recorded lecture for Module 1. This task is recommended, but not required and will take no more than 10 minutes to complete.

Video Attribution: Mireles, N. (2012, June 5). Open education matters: Why is it important to share content? [Video file]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTNnxPcY49Q / Available under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Questionnaire Questions

Your answers to this brief questionnaire will only be viewed by the program facilitators.

1. How would you describe your knowledge of Open Educational Resources?

• Excellent
• Very Good
• Good
• Poor

2. How often do you use Open Educational Resources in your own teaching?

• Always
• Sometimes
• Never

3. Please list any questions about Open Educational Resources that you are hoping will be answered in these modules.

• Allow for open-ended responses

Pre-Recorded Lecture for Module 1: OER 101

After you complete the pre-recorded lecture content, you will be able to:

• Define the key characteristics of open educational resources (OER).
• List and describe examples of OER.
• Identify key benefits OER provide to faculty and students.

• Transcript to videos in pre-recorded lecture (new tab)
• Slides for Pre-recorded lecture (Google Slides – new tab)

Building Block Activity

Open in order to…what?

Introduction: 

During 2017’s Open Access Week, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) provided the prompt of “open in order to” to focus on the why of open, and not just the how. This reflection helps individuals make thoughtful, deliberate choices when designing learning materials that are also meant to be free and open.

Instructions:

This activity is recommended, but not required. It will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. Please answer the following questions. Writing in point form or sentence form is appropriate.

Questions for Instructors:

1. Describe which components of your OER project will benefit [Institution’s name] faculty and students the most.

2. Will all of the components of your project be made into an OER? If yes, how will this benefit students, faculty, and community members outside of [Institution’s name]?

Optional:

Please post your ideas to the building block forum and also try to comment on 1 to 2 of the other participants’ answers.

Recommended Due Date:

[Due date]

Additional Resources

Getting Started with OER:

• eCampusOntario. (2023). Mastering open ed: Licensing, accessibility, creation, and publishing OER. Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.
• Elder, A. (2019). The OER starter kit. Iowa State University Digital press. Available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

Defining OER:

• Bliss, T. J. & Smith, M. (2017). A brief history of open educational resources. In R.S. Jhangiani & R. Biswas-Diener (Eds.), Open: The philosophy and practices that are revolutionizing education and science (pp. 9–27). Ubiquity Press. https://doi.org/10.5334/bbc.b

• SPARC. (2017, October 25). OER mythbusting. https://sparcopen.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/OER_Mythbusting_2017.pdf

Benefits of OER:

• Jhangiani, R. S., Dastur, F. N., Le Grand, R., & Penner, K. (2018). As good or better than commercial textbooks: Students’ perceptions and outcomes from using open digital and open print textbooks. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.5206/cjsotl-rcacea.2018.1.5

• DeRosa, R. (2017, November 1). OER: Bigger than affordability. Inside Higher Education. https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2017/11/01/oer-catalyst-national-conversation-about-public-higher-education#.WhRt03-s_bh.link
• Hilton, J. (2016). Open educational resources and college textbook choices: A review of research on efficacy and perceptions. Educational Technology Research and Development, 64, 573-590. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-016-9434-9
  • Video summary of research paper: Research Shorts. (2016, December 2). A review of the effectiveness & perceptions of open educational resources as compared to textbooks [Video file]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX0K0hb_xKE  / Available under a Creative Commons Attribution license

Considerations Before Using or Creating an OER:

• McNally, M.B. & Christiansen, E.G. (2019). Open enough? Eight factors to consider when transitioning from closed to open resources and courses: A conceptual framework. First Monday, 24(6). http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v24i6.9180