Open Educational Resource (OER) Course Materials

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning resources freelyavailable under public domain or other license (often a Creative Commons license) thatpermits reuse and adaptation without asking permission. Free or very inexpensive. Linkto it or downloadable. Often readable on e-readers. Some can be ordered in boundformat (at cost). Many can be broken up into smaller segments and inserted into thelessons in Moodle. Text, illustrations, and photographs from the textbook can be addedto presentations without obtaining specific permission from the copyright-holders. Somehave ancillary materials available and/or communities of practice for sharing resourcestied to the open material.

How to Search For and Evaluate Open Source Material

OER Handbook for Educators 1.0: http://wikieducator.org/OER_Handbook/educator_version_one

What is OER? http://www.oercommons.org/about

OER-101: Locating, Creating, Licensing and Utilizing OERs

Instructors:Beth Burns, Mark McBride, Kathleen Stone, Sarah Morehouse, PatriceTorcivia, Greg Ketcham, and Dave Wolf

Description:OER-101: Locating, Creating, Licensing and Utilizing OERs is a self-pacedonline community course that has been built to demonstrate how to find, adapt, anddevelop OERs step-by-step. These OERs may then be licensed via Creative Commons,printed and bound, and integrated into any type of learning environment. The course isorganized into five “pursuits,” each of which represents one facet of the world of OERs.Participants are encouraged to complete all of the pursuits by following the suggestedcourse progression, but each pursuit can also be completed individually.

Rubrics for OER (designed for K-12, but good for higher ed too except for the “tied tostandards” criterion): http://achieve.org/oer-rubrics

Are you a content curator of open resources? Here’s how: http://www.bethkanter.org/content-curation-101/

OER SourcesSite Type of Materials Quality Control Customizable NotesConnexions

Founded 2009;non-profit; runby 20+ member(organizations)consortium with majorsupport from RiceUniversity, Hewlett

Educational contentrepository and(optional) contentmanagementsystem for deliveringcontent. 17000+modular learningobjects for all ages,1000+ collections.

Vetted byorganizations(called a "lens") withpublished criteriaand comments,some "endorsed"as especially good,bookmarked to relatedcontent, tagged.

Creative Commonslicense allows for youto adapt any moduleto your own use,group into your owncollections, downloador link to, etc. Veryflexible. You can alsoupload your own

Foundation, MaxfieldFoundation, 20 MillionMinds Foundation andothers.

Viewable via URLor downloadableas PDF or ePub(for mobile deviceaccess). Accessible.Searchable bykeyword, author,"lens" organization,content tags,collection, disciplinaryarea.

content to add to yourcollections or theConnexion collections.

OpenStax College

Same as above.

Open textbookswritten by publishingprofessionals andleading faculty.Supplementarymaterials (PPTs,test banks, instructormanuals). Freeaccess to electroniclink; at cost print.

Peer reviewed, errataand correctionsposted, feedbacksought andincorporated fromactive instructors.

Can do above withtextbooks from thiscollection.

Caution: Easy studentaccess too?

College OpenTextbooksCollaborative

29 non-profit and for-profit organizationsaffiliated with200+ colleges;focused on drivingadoption of opentextbooks. Aimed atcommunity/2-yearcolleges.

Listing of opentextbooks by subject,peer reviews andaccessibility reviews.Not a repository.Links to open booksin repositories.Also links tosupporting materials,communities, etc.

Site Type of Materials Quality Control Customizable NotesOpen Culture

Clearinghouse of freebooks, videos, audiobooks, ebooks.

Free. From varietyof sources. Sortedby subject. Titleslink to repositorysource, some of whichlisted elsewherein this chart. A fewcollections by subject.Entire courses too.

Free Textbooks

Unvetted/reviewed byOpen Culture. Somereviewed by repositorysource.

Customizationpermissions varyaccording to licensefor each item.

OER Commons

Non-profitorganization foundedby IKSME and theHewlett Foundation.Dozens of contentcreators. Run byCommunity CollegeConsortium for OER

50,000 OERresources, includingcase studies, activitiesand labs, gamesand simulations,textbooks, primarysources, courses,etc. Search bysubject, educationlevel, material type,conditions of use,ratings, etc. Catalog

See huge list ofcontent providers formore info.

Most are remixableand customizable.Can also upload yourown contributions.

Uses Web 2.0features (tags, ratings,comments, reviews,and social networking)

Global Text Project

Nonprofit fundedinitially by theJacobs Foundation;run by team from

Primarily textbooks inmany formats.

Volunteers submit andupdate books.

CC license allowsremixing andcustomizing thebooks; can usechapters only.

UGeorgia andUDenver; dependson volunteers fromdozens of collegeswho donate books orcontent writersThe Orange Grove

Florida depository ofOER

Includes audio andvideo files, images,

animations,simulations, lessonplans, “open”textbooks, andadministrativedocuments. Muchof the content isfreely available toeveryone. Someresources, due tolicensing restrictions,are available only toFlorida educators.

? Most materials areadaptable, unlessa more restrictivelicense is attached toit.

Site Type of Materials Quality Control Customizable NotesWikibooks Textbooks, annotated

texts, instructionalguides, and manualsintended forinstruction. Fiction andnon –fiction books forliterature purposes notincluded.

Ongoing updating, asauthors desire.

Project Gutenberg

Non-profitorganization.

Public domain ebooksof three kinds: lightliterature such asAlice in Wonderland,Through the Looking-Glass, Peter Pan,Aesop's Fables, etc.;Heavy Literature, suchas the Bible or otherreligious documents,Shakespeare, MobyDick, Paradise Lost,etc.; References;such as Roget'sThesaurus, almanacs,encyclopedia,dictionaries, etc. Seebook categories here.

Many available inebook/ePub, Kindle,etc. formats.

Linked annotatedlist of other GeneralRepositories

+ K-12 Open-ed

Creative CommonsSearch

Find materials that arelicensed appropriatelyso that you can share,use, and remix itwithout any worries.

OER DynamicSearch Engine: Ameta-OER search

Very simple searchengine that searches

NA

engine searchingmany repositories atonce.

simultaneously manydifferent repositories.

Collections of Single-format or Non-textbook Open-sourceMaterialsSite Type of Materials Quality Control Customizable NotesDirectory of OpenAccess Journals

Free, full text, qualitycontrolled journals inmany subjects andlanguages. Search forjournals or articles innearly 10,000 journalsfrom around the world.

iTunesU

iTunes App

600,000-plus freepublic resources,including audioand video contentfrom museums,universities, culturalinstitutions, and more

?? Yes. Can include allitems one would usein a traditional course:syllabus, handouts,quizzes, etc. Caninclude own videoand audio lecturesas well as interactiveelements such ascontent and links fromthe Internet, iBooks,App Store, and iTunesStore.

TV sources:Discovery Channel,PBS, HistoryChannel, BBC

Most of thesesites have “extracontent,” subtopicsor resources forteachers available.See especially PBSLearning Media(integrates otherlearning resourcesfrom publicly fundedorganizations suchas the NationalArchives, the Libraryof Congress, nationalPublic Radio, NASA,the National ScienceFoundation, theNational Institutes ofHealth and the USDept of Education).

High quality How to use: How touse the directory

Podcast Alley

“Featuring the bestPodcast Directory andthe Top 10 podcasts,as voted on by thelisteners.”

Podcasts onnumerous topics.Goal of the site is todevelop the biggestand best directory ofpodcasts available onthe Internet.

Podcast=audio files

Seems anyone canupload material onceregistered…

Yes.

Site Type of Materials Quality Control Customizable NotesTeacherTube Video sharing website

similar to, and basedTeacherTubecommunity members

“Content on theWebsite is provided

Launched in 2007 on, YouTube. Mixtureof classroom teachingresources and othersdesigned to aidteacher training. K-12and higher ed.

to you AS IS foryour information andinstructional use only”Best to link to theseresources only.

TedTalks

A nonprofit devotedto Ideas WorthSpreading, founded in1984 as a conferencebringing togetherpeople from threeworlds: Technology,Entertainment,Design. Ownedby The SaplingFoundation.

TED conferencesbring togetherthe world's mostfascinating thinkersand doers, who arechallenged to give thetalk of their lives in18 minutes or less.TED.com makesthe best talks andperformances fromTED and partnersavailable to the world,for free.

TedTeam. Willremove unacceptablecontent, for example“content promotingpseudo-science,conspiracy theories,zealotry, proselytizing,self-promotion,product-hawking, andnew-age fluff.”

YouTube

Founded in February2005

Allows billions ofpeople to discover,watch and shareoriginally-createdvideos. Searchable.

YouTube staff reviewflagged videos 24/7.

Some videos markedwith a CC license,others are availableunder “fair use.”

Site Type of Materials Quality Control Customizable NotesWISC-Online

A digital library ofWeb-based learningresources called"learning objects."

Ever-growing libraryof high-qualityeducational teachingmaterials free toeducators

Developed by facultyfrom WisconsinTechnical CollegeSystem (WTCS)and producedby multimediatechnicians whocreate learningobjects.

“Each learning objecthas its own uniqueURL address. Youmay copy this addressand use it on anydocument/website youwish. As a member ofWisc-Online, you willhave your own Wisc-Online page on whichto display your favoritelearning objects. Youmay give the link tothis page to othereducators, learners, orusers.”

Khan Academy Video tutorialcollections for math,science, economics,humanities andpartner content;interactive challengesand assessments;badges; teacherstatistics on classperformance.

Khan Academy staff. Use as is.

NSDL: NationalScience DigitalLibrary, a site createdby Cornell University,Columbia Universityand the Univ Corpfor AtmosphericResearch plusmany governmentpartnerships (NSF,etc.)

50,000+ STEM(science, technology,engineering andmath) educationalresources, including1400 tutorials, 600games, 13,000simulations. For alllevels of education,including higher

Materials createdby educators andprofessional expertsand of high quality.

?? How to use:Searching thecollection

education. Can limitsearches to higher ed.

SmithsonianInstitute

6 million digitizeobjects across19 museums andgalleries. Search in 5primary ways. Tendsto lean toward towardK-12 in the Educatorsarea.

High quality ?? Search the collection

NCLOR: NorthCarolina LearningObject Repository.Created by 58community colleges,36 private colleges,etc.

10,000+ digitallearning resources,including manyinteractive tutorials,simulations, games

Ratings encouragedby users, but manynot rated.

?? How to use NCLOR

NASA: NationalAeronauticsand SpaceAdministration

NASA: Thousands ofeducational resourcesfor elementary andsecondary education;higher ed collectionis growing. Manyother governmentsites have valuableresources inother contentareas: NationalEndowment for theHumanities, NationalEndowment for theArts, Department ofEducation, etc.

High quality resources ?? How to search thecollection

SmithsonianInstitutionCollections SearchCenter Other majormuseums, galleries,etc. may have similarsearch engines totheir collections (i.e.,free access)

Search over 7.4million records with568,100 images,videos, audio files,electronic journals,and other resources.

SVCC Library

Free materialsavailable to ourstudents, although notopen-source per se.

Single-copy ebooks,journal articles, full-length videos (withcapability of makingvideo clips). Can belinked to from withinMoodle with proxyprefix ahead of URLfor authentication.

Maintained current bycollection or databasevendors.

Use as is, or in somecases, can clip fromcollection item.

Research Online (open source)

These open-source resource collections are free to anyone who wants to link to them.Many are in the science area and are not catalogued by any of our Library’s databases.They can be more advanced than our students may be ready for, but not always. SeeMelanie Armstrong for more information, if desired.

Databases

HathiTrustwww.hathitrust.orgDigital library owned and operated by a partnership of major academic researchinstitutions

Directory of Open Access Journalsdoaj.orgDatabase that indexes open source scholarly communication

OCLC OAIster Databaseoaister.worldcat.orgMultidisciplinary catalog of digital resources from open-archive collections worldwide

Public Library of Science (PLOS)www.plosone.orgNonprofit open access scientific publishing project

arXiv.org (Cornell University)Open access to 888,494 e-prints in Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science,Quantitative Biology, Quantitative Finance and Statistics

BioMed Centralwww.biomedcentral.com259 peer-reviewed open access journals in Science, Technology and Medicine

PubMed Central (National Institutes of Health)www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmcFree full-text archive of biomedical & life sciences journals

Open Biology (Royal Society)rsob.royalsocietypublishing.orgOpen access journal covering Biology at the molecular and cellular level

Institutional Repositories (Several universities encourage faculty to post theirresearch for public access)

Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH)dash.harvard.edu

D-Scholarshipd-scholarship.pitt.eduInstitutional Repository of the University of Pittsburgh

DSpace@MITdspace.mit.eduMIT Open Access Articles

University of California eScholarshipescholarship.org

Commercial Sources of Course Materials (electronic format)at Significantly-reduced Prices

1. FlatWorld Knowledge (catalog.flatworldknowledge.com ~$20 ebooks with resourcematerials ~$35. Students can order printed on demand. Faculty can use onlineeditor to rearrange and customize content.)

2. Boundless (www.boundless.com; $20 with built-in quizzes, flashcards, educatortools too)

3. Lulu (www.lulu.com; publish own and then sell as ebook; see catalog for many inthe $2 range and above)

4. Textbookmedia.com (www.textbookmedia.com; multiple electronic and print optionsfor access to textbooks at very reduced prices)

5. Inkling (www.inkling.com ; lower cost real text book titles (search your title); manyinteractive elements (glossary terms, quizzes as you go, poptips, video demos,etc). Modular access, including individual chapters. Can annotate with notes andshare them with students.

6. Probably many others.

Tips for Evaluating OERs Other Than Textbooks

1. Identify gaps in student learning or areas of the content where students need themost help

a. Previous exam resultsb. Current exam or quiz resultsc. Homework performanced. In-class activitiese. Student focus groups

2. Determine what type of learning activity is needed (Tutorial? Game? Simulation?Other?) that matches the type of thinking desired (e.g., memorize/practice, apply,analyze, evaluate).

3. Locate learning objects (audio, video, interactive tutorial, game, simulation, other)and evaluate for:

a. Congruent with course’s learning goals/outcomes (what are students to beable to do with this content? Remember facts? Explain? Apply? Analyze?Evaluate? Create?) and type of knowledge needed (facts, concepts,procedures, metacognition

b. Content is accurate and appropriate for your goals (examples, models, charts,figures and illustrations also) (quality)

c. Activity type fits the type of learning needed and is well-designed (e.g.,effective, high-quality game to teach the concept?)

d. Degree of interactivity (Low-level engagement such as watching video orreading vs. high-level, immersive, multi-media experiences that can beappealing and attract students to spend time on task)

e. Types and levels of feedback provided to the learner, if interactive. The moreindividualized and detailed, the better.

f. Usability (design, layout and navigation of interactive resources should makethem easy to learn and use, with any complexity residing in the content; linearor non-linear structure should make sense and require minimal documentationor training)

g. Tech check (work well with major browsers and are accessible; easilydownloadable if required).