OER @ GSW

Judy Orton GrissettRu Story Huffman

What is OER?

• Open Educational Resources

"Open Educational Resources are teaching and learning materials that

you may freely use and reuse, without charge.”

OER Commons https://www.oercommons.org/

OER Mantra

• Retain  • Reuse• Revise • Remix

OER in the Classroom

• Open Source Software• Open Access• Open Media• Open Data• Open Pedagogies• Open Policy

Attributes of OER

• Free • Access/Use explicitly expressed upfront • No Copyright, payment of fees, proprietary owner permission• Easily & quickly adapted• Customization/enhancements don’t require large investments• Errors, improvements, feature requests - openly shared/managed• Development, distribution, use - community/consortia based• Sustainability relies on sharing – resources, development, hosting,

support• Users are developers

https://open4us.org/about/what-is-open/

Licensing

• Free use• Licensed for re-use and it can be modified

and re-purposed

OER Resources

• OER LibGuide

http://libguides.gsw.edu/OER

Using OER in the Classroom

• Faculty Instructors/Researchers– Drs. Judy Orton Grissett and Chuck Huffman,

Department of Psychology and Sociology

• Course– PSYC 1101- Introduction to Psychology

OER in the Classroom

• Research Design– Implemented open-source, online text in

Spring 2015 introductory psychology course– Compared student performance with students

using traditional paper text – Examined final grades and student

satisfaction survey results

OER in the Classroom

• Participants– N = 68

• 34- Traditional text group• 34- Open-source, online text group

OER in the Classroom

• Materials– Traditional paper text

• Myers' Psychology in Everyday Life, Cost = $100

– Online, open-source text• Stangor's Introduction to Psychology, Cost = Free

OER in the Classroom

• Findings– No significant differences in grades – Students who used the open-source, online text were

more likely to agree with the following statements:• "I like the idea of a free online textbook."• "I prefer using the free online textbook versus buying a

traditional textbook for this course."• "I like the idea of not buying a textbook for this course."• "I would still like to have a traditional paper textbook to use in

addition to the online textbook in this course."

OER in the Classroom

• Challenges– Finding appropriate open-source, online text– Adjusting to online text– Lack of experience with OER in classroom

(for students and instructor)

OER in the Classroom

• Future Directions– Department-wide adoption of open-source,

online text– Increased awareness and application of OER

OER in the Classroom

• Funding for this project was provided by USG's Affordable Learning Georgia Textbook Transformation Grant (Round 1, Grant #23)

• Additional OER funding opportunities – Textbook Transformation Grants