Breaking Free: An OER Primer on Creating a Cost-Free Course

Premise: Educators of online or face-to-face courses seek to provide cost effective solutions for their students.

What does a faculty member need to do in order to move to a cost-free class for students: (This portion of the presentation includes conversations with attendees rather than being entirely didactic.)

• Intro and What is the process? (5 mins)   

  • Timeline - Time It Takes to Convert a Course

  • Identifying course content that needs an OER replacement

  • Selecting materials to replace costly content; evaluating materials for quality

  • Implementing in the course (LMS)

  • Connecting students to open content (allowing them to use, remix, share)

    • Do you ever have to prepare students to use OER in these ways?

    • Do you ever train students to remix/create OER?

• How to incorporate OER (Backwards Design from course goals?) (5 mins)

  • Guiding faculty in a backwards design process that is tied to OER adoption

  • Aligning content with objectives and assessments of the course/organization

• Where to find OER (10 mins)

  • What kinds of OER:

    • Definitions of OER -- free resources are just as valuable

      • OER/Affordable Learning $olutions

    • Textbooks (Cool4Ed)

    • Articles (Open journals; materials from your school’s library)

    • Simulations; quizzes

    • Software, apps

• How to evaluate OER (reviews in MERLOT/Cool4Ed) (5 mins)

• Small Group Discussion (15 mins)

  • How to engage students in the process of using, remixing and sharing OER

    • Both in-person and virtual discussion groups with facilitators will be provided.

    • Board members to help facilitate a discussion on how to involve students with using, remixing, and creating OER.

Share Out and Closure (5 mins) - an Infographic and link to a website with references in Content Builder will be provided to all attendees.

Takeaways:

• Cheat Sheet for Faculty on OER

  • Infographic of steps to convert a course to OER

• Cheat Sheet for Students on OER

  • Infographic on using, remixing, and sharing OER

• Content-Builder Resources List

References

Devaney, L. (2016, October 20) 3 challenges to OER implementation. Retrieved from https://www.eschoolnews.com/2016/10/20/3-challenges-oer-implementation/

Tutorial 2: Creating and Modifying Open Educational Resources - Help / Affordable Learning     Georgia. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/ help/creating-1

Willcott, J. (2018, March 13). A 7-Step Guide to Creating Your Own Open Educational Resources - EdSurge News. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2014-11-10-a-7-step-guide-to-creating-your-own-open-educational-resources

Wilhelm, R. (2018, March 13). ​A Playbook to Go Open: 5 Steps to Adopting OER - EdSurge News. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-11-19-a-playbook-

to-go-open-5-steps-to-adopting-oer