Open Up!

https://pixabay.com/photo-999247/ Open educational resources (OER) are freely available educational materials that can be used by anyone, anywhere utilizing the power of the internet.  UNESCO defines OER as, “any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them.”  Open pedagogy goes hand in hand with OER.  Open education advocate, David Wiley notes that employing OER in the same ways traditional textbooks are used will reduce textbook costs for students and may improve learning outcomes because more students have access to required materials but he notes that this substitution does little to elevate or innovate teaching practice.  Open pedagogy practices can provide this innovation.  Open licenses make open pedagogy possible.  Open licenses allow instructors to reuse, revise and essentially reinvent educational resources.

Like open education, online distance learning is a much-debated topic in the realm of higher education.  Online programs catering to distance education students, especially at the graduate and professional level, continue to grow as colleges and universities look for ways to increase enrollments and revenue.  Technology has made growth possible in both open education and online distance education.  Many online students are working adults seeking to expand their knowledge and obtain degrees and certifications to advance their careers.  They often don’t have the luxury, the financial means, or the desire to leave their current careers or jobs to become resident students. Online distance program enrollment is the answer for many of these individuals.  These programs are growing ( OLC ).   What if we envision a future in which interconnections between online distance learning and open education become accepted standards?  What if future distance education courses featured the exclusive

In August of 2009 Academic Policy 1406.30 , Textbooks and Course Materials policy was enacted for the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville campus.  This policy was created to help the university meet the requirements of Arkansas state textbook legislation.  This policy regulates adoption deadlines, bookstore notification, and sets guidelines and expectations for faculty inducements and royalties.  And while this policy sets important standards, an additional policy focused on Open Educational Resources (OER) is needed. We need a new policy encouraging the consideration, adoption, adaptation, and development of OER.   Fast forward to 2017, availability and access to OER has skyrocketed.  OER confronts the primary issue that spurred the state legislature to pass a 2007 textbook bill aimed at combating the high cost of textbooks.  The legislation reads as follows:    SECTION 2. EMERGENCY CLAUSE. It is found and determined by the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas that tex

Image by Christy Sheffield, Flickr Today’s post offers some tips for starting your OER creation.The first piece of advice is don’t get overwhelmed by what may seem to be a monumental task.  Try not to think of your content in terms of the traditional textbook.  Think about your course, your learning objectives, and the content you want  the students to learn. This will help you focus on the most important elements of the course and create a resource that efficiently and effectively meets student needs.   Next, decide how you will create and publish the OER. What creation tool will you use?  Where will you publish your creation? Basic, widely available word processing programs are a great place to begin.  Theses include Microsoft Word and Google Docs.  Both are familiar and easy to use.  With the right forethought, either can be a useful creation tool.  Publishing platforms range from simply providing links to documents inside a Google Docs folder to uploading content onto pla

Today’s post was written to encourage you as a faculty member to go out bravely into the landscape of OER and fight the fears you may have of open licensing , fair use, and public domain resources.  I know these issues can be confusing.  These five tips will help you begin to get up to speed on the issues and fight those fears of the unknown!  Don’t stay in the dark!  Face your fears! #1 Open Licensing is a good thing!  It doesn’t have to be complicated.  You make educational resources, you share them with your students at no cost.  You share them with the world.  Plain and simple.  Well, not really. But truthfully, open licensing is not that hard. Simply licensing your work as fully open (CC by)  gives anyone in the world the rights to retain, revise, reuse, remix, and redistribute it.  However, you can limit the level of openness if you choose.   #2 Creative Commons (CC) licensing helps simplify the sharing of educational resources .  You as a creator (or adapter/remixer)

So, you want to find some OER? In today’s post, I’ll be reviewing the Open Textbook Library (OTL) ( http://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/ ).  If you are new to OER this repository is a great place to start.    It is currently one of the most well-known and well-developed OER collections available. The OTL is maintained by the Open Textbook Network (OTN) a collective organization of colleges and universities who’ve joined together to support and promote open textbooks.  The organization is led by David Ernst, PhD, Director of the Center for Open Education and the Executive Director of the Open Textbook Network (About Us, https://research.cehd.umn.edu/otn/about-us/ ). According to a 2015 article Ernst was driven to found the network by a desire to make college more affordable for students and to broaden the reach and usefulness of digital media.  He eventually came to the conclusion that expanding awareness, access and use of open textbooks was one way to do this (Summerfield, 2015, http:

Image Source:  Pixab y .   CCO Creative Commons Dear Razorbacks,  During the Fall 2016 term over 1600 students at the University of Arkansas were enrolled in Sociology 2013 a popular core curriculum elective.  The average textbook price was $141 for a new textbook, $106 for a used or rented textbook.  If open textbooks had been adopted for this high enrollment lower division core course significant cost savings would have been realized by students.  The chart below illustrates this.   Fall 2016 SOCI 2013.  Enrollment- 1678.  Data compiled from U of A class schedules and U of A bookstore.  There is a lot of talk on our campus and campuses around the country about the high cost of college attendance. Reducing the cost of textbooks is one way to lower the cost of attendance.  Open Educational Resources are textbooks and other course materials professors can adopt or create for use in their classrooms. These course materials can replace traditional textbooks in your