2018 | 2019 Innovative Teaching Showcase

SHOWCASE INDEX | CIIA | WWU ISSUE 20

Open Educational Practices

Ideas

Idea #2: Curating OER Content as “Texts”

“In other words, OER are flexible, and they empower faculty and students to work together to customize learning materials to suit specific courses and objectives.”1

Learning Intention

Consider replacing your course text with OER course materials. If you are not tied to the text, what can you include in the course that you were not able to before?

Overview

Faculty can take a more student-centered approach to teaching by replacing their central course text with open educational resources. This can create a more affordable course option for students and also give students access to relevant, up-to-date information. “By replacing a static textbook--or other stable learning material--with one that is openly licensed, faculty have the opportunity to create a new relationship between learners and the information they access for the course.”1

Instructions2

  1. Focus on Assessment and Outcomes: Determine, or fine tune, course objectives and a course outline before looking for materials.

  2. Research Readings: Create/curate/gather texts, which might include open articles, music, media, podcasts, video, images, etc.

  3. Check Licensing and “Free” But Not Open: Review the licensing of selected course materials.

  4. Review Assessments: How will students demonstrate their understanding? What are the formative versus summative assessments?

  5. Short Term and Long Term Planning: Make time for continuous improvement and updates in the course.

Considerations

  • Upload OER in easily edited/re-mixable forms. Don’t use PDFs when creating open educational resources. “Materials compiled by instructors in PDF form for download cannot be easily re-constructed to fit specific-contexts” (p. 4).2

References

  1. DeRosa, R., & Robison, S. (2017). From OER to Open Pedagogy: Harnessing the Power of Open. In: Jhangiani, R S and Biswas-Diener, R. (eds.) Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science. Pp. 115–124. London: Ubiquity Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/bbc.i. License: CC-BY 4.0.

  2. Hegarty, B. (2015). Attributes of Open Pedagogy: A Model for Using Open Educational Resources. Educational Technology,55(4), 3-13. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/44430383

  3. West, Q. Course Curation in Five Steps. Retrieved on May 30, 2019, from: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/17077rqOUudBPTOJq70Bwaw7sK0OU2qoKGgLJqtBDq7w/edit#slide=id.p