The MIT OpenCourseWare Educator Initiative supports and sustains open education teaching practices at scale. Here you’ll find pathways for discovering, adapting, and sharing the open educational resources (OER) you’ll find on our platforms. We also invite you to connect with and inspire the teaching community at MIT. Welcome, we’re glad you’re here.
Sunday, July 31, 2022
Saturday, July 30, 2022
Open Educational Resources (OER) - EDUCAUSE
Explore this resource site—a collection of all EDUCAUSE resources related to open educational resources (OER) in higher education.
Friday, July 29, 2022
Open Illinois Initiative - CARLI
The CARLI Open Illinois Initiative is a commitment to facilitate members’ use and support of Open Educational Resources (OER), especially training, advocacy, and coordination of cooperative efforts for the benefit of Illinois higher education students. The right navigational bar provides links to materials that may be helpful to those engaged in or plan to advocate for adoption of OER on their campuses. While this site focuses on Open Educational Resources, we also encourage librarians and instructors to advocate for library services, such as licensed resources or course reserves, to help improve affordability of course materials for students.
https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/collections-management/open-ed-resource-overview
Thursday, July 28, 2022
Newsom’s bid to make textbooks free delayed in community colleges central office - Desert Sun
More than one year after California lawmakers set aside $115 million to expand free textbook programs across the state’s system of 116 community colleges, the money remains stalled in the state chancellor’s office. The funds have yet to reach the colleges or support the system’s students who often spend hundreds of dollars per semester to buy books.
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Investigation of Open Educational Resources Adoption in Higher Education Using Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation Theory - Leila JamelMenzli, et al; Science Direct
This article is aimed to investigate OER adoption in higher institutions by using Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory. 422 responses to an online survey from faculty are gathered and analyzed, where adaptive attributes of DOI are adopted. The results of the descriptive method confirmed that relative advantage has a positive impact on faculty OER adoption. Indeed, positive impacts of observability and complexity are also shown. Ultimately, the findings from the structural model used, indicated that there is a positive correlation between trialability and respectively complexity and compatibility.
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
A framework to design open educational resources-integrated online courses for undergraduate learning: A design-based research approach - Thanuja Chandani Sandanayake, et al; Education and Information Technologies
A significant issue with OER-integrated online courses is the poorly addressed instructional design features. Instructionally rich online courses will have a greater impact on both teaching and learning. This study is aimed at exploring different support systems in relation to the undergraduate learning process through the design of OER-integrated online courses. It explored design features under four main Instructional Design (ID) aspects, being: Information Design, Instruction Design, Interface Design and Interaction Design.
Monday, July 25, 2022
Potential ethical problems in the creation of open educational resources through virtual spaces in academia - Lancelord Siphamandla Mncubea and Lindiwe Carol Mthethwa; Science Direct
Although many institutions are promoting the adoption and creation of OER, they are still lacking in the policies and development guidelines related to the creation. This could perpetrate the potential ethical problems that affect the development of OER. This study aimed to find out ethical procedures and peer-review processes associated with the adoption and development of OER. A qualitative approach was used to gather data from OER developers in the academic space.
Sunday, July 24, 2022
Open educational resources: expanding equity or reflecting and furthering inequities? - George Veletsianos, Educational Technology Research and Development
In this paper I argue that open educational resources (OER), such as open textbooks, are an appropriate and worthwhile response to consider as colleges and universities shift to digital modes of teaching and learning. However, without scrutiny, such efforts may reflect or reinforce structural inequities. Thus, OER can be a mixed blessing, expanding inclusion and equity in some areas, but furthering inequities in others.
Saturday, July 23, 2022
Implementing open educational resources in digital education - Hengtao Tang, Educational Technology Research and Development
Open educational resources (OER), with the benefits of cost-saving and open licenses, have great potential in facilitating the rapid transition to digital education, but concerns about whether OER decrease the effectiveness of student learning remains unsolved. Hilton’s review article (2016) provides synthesized evidence stating that OER can help decrease college students’ textbook spending without undermining student learning effectiveness. It is also noteworthy that implementing OER in digital education needs additional considerations beyond the efficacy of OER. Therefore, this special issue article extends Hilton’s (2016) synthesized findings by presenting four additional perspectives in research, design, culture, practice about implementing OER in digital education.
Friday, July 22, 2022
Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona - OER Commons
The Open Textbooks for Rural Arizona initiative is a grant project funded by the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) through the U.S. Department of Education. Led by Yavapai College, a consortium of seven rural Arizona community colleges, was formed to increase student cost savings through access to Open Educational Resources (OER). The consortium serves 36,676 students in 11 Arizona counties (77% of Arizona geographically).
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Open Books, Open Minds - AAC&U
Research shows that in certain contexts in which educators provide OER, student performance gaps shrink and withdrawal rates decline. More than 3,000 faculty across the United States have signed an open textbook statement of support sponsored by Student Public Interest Research Groups (Student PIRGs), pledging to consider cost in choosing course materials and to promote the use of high-quality open textbooks. But more faculty can take advantage of OER as they plan their courses.
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
How Salt Lake Community College is helping its students save money on textbooks - Fresh Living, 2KUTV
Salt Lake Community College has saved students more than $21 million in textbook fees! Andrea Scott joined Fresh Living to talk about their wildly successful Open Educational Resources program. Open Educational Resources, or OER, is an alternative to purchasing expensive textbooks that SLCC has been offering its students since 2014. It makes education more affordable and accessible to their students.
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Course Hero Quietly Took Over Hosting Lumen’s OER Content. They Say It’s No Big Deal - Daniel Mollenkamp, EdSurge
Lumen had turned over its catalog of “community-created course content,” it became clear, to Course Hero, Inc., the edtech “unicorn” and homework help site. The content wasn’t sold, the hosting was just handed off to free up resources, according to Lumen. In May, Course Hero quietly began putting the content on its site. The result is that clicking on a course content listing from Lumen—whether it’s “Boundless Accounting” or “African American History and Culture” or another course—will likely send you off to Course Hero, where it’s being hosted.
Monday, July 18, 2022
META Engineers Build a Universal Translator of 200 Languages in Open Source Software - IBL News
This tool, called No Language Left Behind, is part of Meta’s R&D project to create a universal speech translator, which would help the growth of Facebook, Instagram, virtual reality destinations, and other of its social media properties. The open source approach — with the code available on GitHub — is taken to attract more technicians to the development work. In an abstract, Meta explains that this universal translator is “driven by the goal of eradicating language barriers on a global scale” with the help of machine learning technologies.
https://iblnews.org/meta-build-a-universal-translator-of-200-languages-in-open-source-software/
Sunday, July 17, 2022
OER Open Educational Resources - Santa Anna College
Many students cannot afford to buy their books. OER provides no-cost or low-cost course materials, that can make higher education accessible and affordable for everyone. OER ensures that students have access to all course material from the first of day of class. Many top colleges and universities across the country are providing free online course options to the public. This access allows students from all walks of life the ability to enjoy high-quality courses and tutorials developed by institutions such as Open Yale Courses, JHSPH OpenCourseWare (John Hopkins University), Webcast. Berkeley (University of California Berkeley), MIT OpenCourseWare, Open Learning Initiative (Carnegie Mellon University), and Harvard Open Courses.
https://sac.edu/AcademicAffairs/DistanceEd/OER/Pages/default.aspx
Saturday, July 16, 2022
Open Educational Resources (OER) - CSI Library CUNY
This guide is intended to introduce you to Open Educational Resources (OERs). The guide includes OER used by CSI faculty and recommendations for discipline-specific resources. The COVID-19 pandemic has required a rapid response by educators to meet student needs. CSI has transitioned to mostly distance learning for the present and the physical library space is closed until further notice. Many instructors might find themselves looking for resources that are easily accessible and don't require an in-person visit to the library. Open Educational Resources (OER), are free and openly available instructional materials (including textbooks) that are born digital and available from anywhere with an internet connection.
Friday, July 15, 2022
What are OER and how do they differ from Open Access, Library-Licensed and Affordable Course Content? - University of Mary Washington
OER are freely and publicly available teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. For example, instructors may download the material, tailor it to one’s course, save a copy locally to share with one’s students and share it back out with attribution. OER can include textbooks, course materials and full courses, modules, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge. An open source (or open) textbook is a textbook which is OER.
Thursday, July 14, 2022
OER - Open Educational Resources: Big List of Resources - University of Pittsburgh
OER - Open Educational Resources: Big List of Resources is a service of the University of Pittsburgh Library System. Open Educational Resources (OER) are any type of educational material that are freely available for teachers and students to use, adapt, share, and reuse. This list includes a long list of links to resources and entire OER courses.
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT - OER Project
Precisely aligned: Carefully aligned to the AP® World History: Modern Course and Exam Description (CED), including themes, periodization, topics, and historical developments. Free for everyone: We designed this course to eliminate barriers for teachers and students alike. All content is online and can easily be downloaded for offline use. Grounded in research and best practices: OER Project works with teachers, scholars, and learning scientists to incorporate and share the latest learning insights and approaches.
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
United States History II - SUNY OER Services
This Lumen Learning Waymaker U.S. History course aims to help students use historical thinking skills to describe, compare, contextualize, and construct historical arguments about major events in American history from 1877 to the present day. The course covers the chronological history of the United States from Reconstruction through the beginning of the twenty-first century and introduces key forces and major developments that together form the U.S. experience, providing a balanced approach that considers the people, events, and ideas that have shaped the United States from both the top-down (politics, economics, diplomacy) and bottom-up (eyewitness accounts, lived experience), with particular attention paid to issues of race, class, and gender.
Monday, July 11, 2022
Digital Curricula Use in Higher Education Continues to Grow even with Return to In-Person Courses - Bay View Analytics, Ein News
The 2021-22 survey results are the first year that the majority of faculty (57%) report awareness of open educational resources (OER). addition, over half of faculty stated that they “agree” or “strongly agree” that they would like to teach their courses as a combination of in-person and online and also as fully online. “Digital curricula and remote learning in higher education were already on the rise before the pandemic. The emergency switch to online learning during the pandemic introduced many faculty and students to a wider range of digital tools,” says Dr. Julia Seaman, Director of Research at Bay View Analytics and author of the report.
Sunday, July 10, 2022
Join MoodleNet to share and curate open educational resources and contribute to strengthening education! - Abby Fry, Moodle
At Moodle, we support open education as crucial to reimagining and renewing education for our collective benefit. The open education movement recognises that an empowered teacher or educator requires access to quality resources, skills and tools, including open methods in accessing resources. MoodleNet is a new open source social network designed to sustainably empower communities of educators, teachers and trainers to share and curate educational resources. This philosophy of sharing and collaboration supports the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goal 4 to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
Saturday, July 9, 2022
Pandemic Boost for Digital Course Materials - Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed
Instructors’ awareness and use of open educational resources and their recognition of the efficacy of digital texts rose sharply this year, an annual survey finds. Many experts have been predicting for years that digital course materials would take off, replacing print textbooks and curricular supplements as the preferred choice of instructors, students and institutions alike. But despite growing concerns about the high price of print textbooks, major investments by states and foundations in open educational resources (OER), and a big push by commercial publishers for “inclusive access” programs that make digital course materials available to all students more affordably, faculty embrace of digital materials has risen slow.
Until now, it seems.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/06/30/embrace-digital-course-materials-grew-during-pandemic
Friday, July 8, 2022
Amgen Foundation Will Invest $30M on Open edX-Based LabXchange Platform - IBL News
The Amgen Foundation announced this month that it will double its investment in Harvard University’s online science education platform LabXchange.org donating an additional $30 million. This Open edX software – based platform contains currently 16,000 learning resources at no cost, including curated and personalized online lab experiments, interactive lessons, and videos. Harvard’s Office of the Vice Provost of Advances in Learning (VPAL) manages the project.
https://iblnews.org/amgen-foundation-will-invest-30m-on-open-edx-based-labxchange-platform/
Thursday, July 7, 2022
Nonprofit Provides Free, High-Quality Instructional Materials for Teacher Prep Programs - Philanthropy Roundtable
Philanthropy Roundtable recently spoke with BIW Teachers Executive Director and CEO Dr. Sally Beatty to discuss challenges and opportunities the organization has identified, including inadequate preparation for future teachers at the undergraduate level, a lack of affordable teaching materials – and a shortage of certified teachers affecting students nationwide.
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
Open Professionals Education Network Resources
This collection of resources helps explain the services available to TAACCCT grantees from OPEN in relation to meeting requirements for deliverables. Other support material is also listed below, including guides for best practices when marking content, OER management, and for universal design for learning and accessibility.Jump to resources from each OPEN Partner:
Creative Commons (CC)
Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
Open Learning Initiative (OLI)
Washington State Board (SBCTC)
OPEN Research for TAACCCT
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
NASA Launches a Community and Education Initiative to Accelerate Open Science - IBL News
NASA introduced its Open-Source Science initiative (OSSI) last month, which intends to build an open science community over the next decade and share software, data, and knowledge (algorithms, papers, documents, ancillary information) in the scientific process. One of the key components of the program is TOPS (Transform to Open Science), which provides visibility, advocacy, and community resources.
Monday, July 4, 2022
Innovators of the Year - UC Davis
Delmar Larsen has developed an innovative solution to eliminate the barrier of high-cost textbooks on education and increase accessibility to students around the world. His work developing LibreTexts –– an internet library of free and open-source educational resources for K-12 and college courses –– has been recognized as an all-inclusive hub for student learning across the world. The online distribution aspect of LibreTexts has saved students an estimated $50 million in textbook costs. Larsen hopes to see the platform adapted into a statewide infrastructure. In 2020, the project received a $1 million innovation grant from the state of California’s Learning Lab to build the free ADAPT homework system to accompany the textbooks. LibreTexts’ ability to democratize access to expensive STEM textbooks is especially important for diversity, equity and inclusion of first-generation college students, low-income students and minority-serving institutions in the sciences.
Sunday, July 3, 2022
Innovating in affordability - St. Cloud State Today
Jess VanderWerf is fortunate that she has very little she needs to invest in her classes outside of paying for her tuition and fees. “In our program we aim to make it affordable by using articles,” she said. “We try to avoid using textbooks because who has that much extra.” VanderWerf’s professors are innovating new ways of providing students with access to course materials that are affordable or accessible in ways beyond purchasing a textbook at the bookstore. The zero-degree (Z-degree) movement seeks to make college more affordable for students by making sure they have no expenses beyond tuition and fees.
Saturday, July 2, 2022
Campuses recognize faculty for promoting open, affordable educational resources - Penn State University
Four Penn State campuses — Abington, Berks, Lehigh Valley and Mont Alto — awarded Penn State’s inaugural Open and Affordable Educational Resources (OAER) Champion Award during the spring 2022 semester. A collaboration between Penn State University Libraries and the University-wide OAER Working Group, the OAER Champion Award is a pilot initiative recognizing excellence, innovation and impact in OAER at Penn State campuses.
Friday, July 1, 2022
OER TECHNOLOGY WORKING GROUP - MHEC
The MHEC OER Technology Working Group first convened in January 2021. During these initial meetings, the working group used a Miro board to capture the areas where technology intersects with OER, challenges associated with OER and IT, and needs for the OER community around technology. Out of this brainstorming it became apparent that there are a lot of challenges around technology products to author and publish OER, and that the current marketplace is relatively immature and sometimes difficult to navigate. The MHEC Technology work group would benefit from more insight into the features, functions, and capabilities of various tools and platforms that can be used for authoring and publishing OER.
https://www.mhec.org/policy-research/open-educational-resources/oer-technology-working-group
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