The University Libraries are particularly happy to support and host Mason English 302 Open Educational Resources, a peer reviewed repsository of open academic resources for use in Mason's English 302 classes. Led by Composition Program faculty and initially supported by a 4-VA Course Redesign Grant, the website permits faculty to easily search, reuse, and adapt the mentor products established by their coworkers.
For example, is utilized as a basic introductory book for Mason's Introduction to Public Relations course in the Department of Interaction.
UWMadison has recognized the adoption and production of Open Educational Resources (OER) as a priority within the Educational Development (EI) Effort, and in connection with the university's collaboration with the Unizin consortium. The benefits of increased usage of OER for instruction include enhanced achievement of learning outcomes, higher versatility and more diverse pathways for students when accessing discovering products, greater flexibility for instructors to customize instructional materials, and lower course product expenses for students.
OER have substantial potential to assist campus additional embody and enact the Wisconsin Concept through the sharing of our teaching resources across the state, the nation and the world. Read the full strategic framework file. Support and encourage trainers to develop, revise, and adopt OER course products that increase student learning and student access to high quality, ingenious knowing products, at lower expense.
Our main stakeholders are enrolled undergraduate students and trainers. Prioritize assistance for OERs based upon: Prospective effect: number of trainees, expense per textbook, capability to pay Possible worth to communities that don't have resources to establish the material. Example: less typically taught languages, niche/specialized instructional locations, UW System trainees Possible to enhance and/or expand opportunities for discovering Potential benefit to the reputation/brand of the program/discipline Obvious professors capacity and interest Develop and encourage adoption of versatile formats that enable students to easily download, keep, and re-use product at low- or no-cost As the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation explains, OER are "openly certified, online educational products that provide a remarkable opportunity for people everywhere to share, usage, and reuse knowledge." More particularly, they are: Teaching, discovering, and research study resources that live in the public domain or have actually been launched under a copyright license that allows their complimentary use and re-purposing by others.
OER are likewise used by professors and staff at universities to enhance efficiency and conserve resources (e.g., paper), alter and improve track records, boost technological momentum and individualize knowing (see Martin Weller's,, for a comprehensive discussion of this subject).
OER formats include both digital and standard (printable) formats, though digital formats are plainly making headway provided how simple they can be put on available platforms and shared within the general public sphere (including between trainers).
Some examples consist of: Images Videos, video tutorials or lectures Components obviously Audio podcasts, tutorials or lectures Interactive video games and simulations Infographics E-books/open texts Quizzes Entire courses (e.g., MOOCs) Discover More about the selection of Creative Commons certifies that are normally applied to OER. UW-Madison Library staff, in particular, Carrie Nelson, would more than happy to deal with faculty and staff on the implications of various licensing choices for the advancement and/or usage of OER.
The majority of professors and staff recognize with the Open Gain access to phenomenon in relationship to the publication of research study findings, whereas the OER are more typically connected with teaching and learning.
OER consist of any kind of educational product easily offered AND that is particularly certified for instructors and students to use, adapt, share, and reuse. Examples of OER consist of discovering content (such as lesson plans, projects, textbooks, tests, and videos) as well as tools for knowing (like software for producing videos and websites, course management systems, word processing programs, and training products).
Instructors can embrace premium course materials currently prepared by colleagues. This enables more time for individualizing lectures, improving course products, and offering individualized guideline and feedback to trainees. Generally released books are secured by copyright restrictions, which restrict reuse. Conversely, with OER, trainees and trainers can use material in brand-new contexts, adjustments, or derivations, with endless possibilities and iterations in the future.
Trainees keep their products forever, so they will constantly have access to the course material, if they so select. examine OER quality and use utilize OER to reduce the cost naturally material for trainees place OER on course reserve, in the library catalog, and in the book shop share OER that you develop from your own course materials supporter for OER with your colleagues the University Shop in Oakland can add info about an OER you use in your course to the bookstore brochure and to the bookshelves, as well as print physical copies of OER See the library's OER Guide for lots of info and links for you to explore.
Having actually thought a bit more about what 'open' ways, let's now take a closer take a look at what is meant by practices and resources that are 'open'. To start with, let's concentrate on a particular sort of resource that will help us understand openness in practice: open instructional resources [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab.
A video you've utilized in class, a lesson plan, a register, a discussion, a textbook or chapter from a book or a design that you utilize to show an example the list is endless!You might have tried to find resources online or in the library to accompany your lessons or a presentation.
Possibly you have actually browsed TES Resources or BBC Bitesize for motivation when planning your lessons. Often there are copyright constraints on how you can use resources that you find, but within an educational context you have the ability to use these due to what is explained as 'fair dealing' or 'reasonable usage'.
The consents offered through an open licence state how you can recycle the resource (e.g. whether the author just needs to be associated, whether you can not use it for commercial functions or whether you can make modifications to the product) and how you should associate it. OER are not necessarily constantly digital, but those that are made offered online, for instance by means of repositories, likewise give users the ability to remix the resources in situ.
You can discover out more about 'what happened next' in relation to a variety of OER in Alan Levine's Real Stories of Open Sharing. Nevertheless, let's very first explore in a little bit more depth what is implied by an OER. Defining OER is essential, as what is meant by 'open' within this context offers a great structure for considering the things that you require to do when developing an OER and how this may alter your own practice.
The nature of these open products suggests that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. OER variety from textbooks to curricula, curricula, lecture notes, assignments, tests, jobs, audio, video and animation.' Another way of thinking of what makes an academic resource 'open' is to believe about what an 'open' resource allows you to do with its content/material.
