OER IN THE

CLASSROOM
Ru Story Huffman
Professor & Dean of Library Services
James E. Carter Library
Georgia Southwestern State University
ru.story-huffman@gsw.edu

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, 2015

In Other Words

Dont
reinvent
the
wheel

OER Mantra
Retain
Reuse
Revise
Remix

Challenges
Quality/legality of resources
Sustainability
Here today, gone
tomorrow
Organizational change
Trust factor/willingness to
share

Benefits
Free/reduced cost for
students
Relevancy
Engagement
Flexibility
Availability

OER in the Classroom

Open
Open
Open
Open
Open
Open

Source Software
Access
Media
Data
Pedagogies
Policy
OPEN, nd

Attributes of OER
Free
Access/Use explicitly expressed
upfront
No Copyright, payment of fees,
proprietary owner permission
Easily & quickly adapted
Customization/enhancements
dont require large investments

OPEN, nd

 Errors, improvements, feature

requests - openly shared/managed
Development, distribution, use community/consortia based
Sustainability relies on sharing
resources, development, hosting,
support
Users are developers
OPEN, nd

OER Mindset
What skills do you want students to learn and
apply?
What content will you deliver, and how does it
connect to the desired outcome and align with
standards?
How will you check for understanding and
challenge students to apply their learning?
How are you transitioning the learning from a
passive experience to an active, creative
experience?
Marcniek, A. (2015)

Licensing
Free use
Licensed for re-use
Modified and re-purposed
CC BY (attribution)
(attribution/share alike)

CC BY AS

Creative Commons, nd

Types of OER
Open Online Courses
MOOCs
Textbooks
OpenStax, Saylor, etc
OpenCourseWare
MIT
Depository
Merlot

 Content Modules
Digital Learning Objectives
Digital OER Library Collections
Video, PPT, Podcasts
LibGuides

Open Source Textbooks

Bookboon
http://bookboon.com/en/textbooks-ebooks
Community College Consortium for Open Educational
Resources
https://oerconsortium.org/discipline-specific/
Flat World Knowledge
http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/
OpenStax
http://openstaxcollege.org
Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
University of Minnesota Center for Open Education
http://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/

LIBR1101 & EDUC3200

Cross discipline Textbook Transformation
Grant
Develop, Design, Deliver
Overlapping content
LibGuide delivery platform

73 students
3 sections
1 LIBR1101, 2 EDUC3200
92.86% of respondents had
a positive experience with
OER

PSYC1101
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 PSYC

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

Future Directions
Department-wide adoption of
open-source, online text
More courses
Increased awareness and
application of OER
Continued Development & Design

OER in the Classroom

Funding for this project was provided
by
USG Affordable Learning Georgia
Textbook Transformation Grant
(Round 2, Grant #101)
Affordable Learning Georgia
http://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/

OER LibGuide
http
://libguides.gsw.edu/OER

References
Creative Commons. (nd). About the licenses. Retrieved from: http://
creativecommons.org/licenses
Marcniek, A. (2015). Open education resources meet instructional design. Retrieved from:
http://
www.edutopia.org/blog/open-educational-resources-instructional-design-andrew-marcinek
OER Commons. (2015). What are OER? Retrieved from: https://www.oercommons.org/about
OPEN. (nd). What is open? Retrieved from: https://open4us.org/about/what-is-open/