Open Up!

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 Goog...

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. T...