1. Teaching and Learning with
OER: What’s the Impact in a
K12 (Online) Classroom?
Dr. Beatriz de los Arcos
The Open University, UK
@celTatis

2. Photo: CC BY-NC https://flic.kr/p/pR2xWF

3. oerresearchhub.org

4. Open Source Software
Open Access
Open Culture
Open Educational Resources
Open Content
Open Data
Open Science
Open Research
Open Licensing
Open Textbooks
Open Courseware
Open Policy
CC BY J.Park http://www.slideshare.net/janeatcc

5. CC BY J.Park http://www.slideshare.net/janeatcc

6. Keyword Hypothesis
Performance OER improve student performance/satisfaction
Openness People use OER differently from other online materials
Access OER widen participation in education
Retention OER can help at-risk learners to finish their studies
Reflection OER use leads educators to reflect on their practice
Finance OER adoption brings financial benefits for students/institutions
Indicators Informal learners use a variety of indicators when selecting OER
Support Informal learners develop their own forms of study support
Transition OER support informal learners in moving to formal study
Policy OER use encourages institutions to change their policies
Assessment Informal assessments motivate learners using OER

7. OER Impact Map
http://oermap.org

9. Sample
Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/y59xh

10. K12 educators (N=571):
• 50.3% female, 49.4% male
• 85.6% face-to-face; 7.9% online; 6.4% blended
• 43.4% from US
• 68.1% speakers of English as first language
• 53.6% >10 years of teaching experience
• 52.9% Science; 33.8% Math; 26.5% Education

11. types of OER?
Photo CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/5uFCiT

12. • Videos 74.9%
• Images 65.3%
• Open textbooks 54.4%
• Lesson plans 44.3%
• Quizzes 41.7%

13. Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/5BZgEa

14. 85.2% of K12 educators adapt OER to suit their needs
“The problem where I teach now is
that we have no money; my
textbooks, my Science textbooks are
20 years old, they’re so outdated,
they don’t relate to kids (...) so I pick
and pull from a lot of different places
to base my units”
“I will maybe look and find an
instructional video that’s maybe 2 or 3
minutes long that gets to the point
better than I could, and I would use it,
or I will look for lessons and if they are
for Grade 5 or Grade 3 I don’t use all
of it, I just adapt it, I take out what I
don’t want and rearrange it”

15. Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/o4Hice
purpose?

16. K12 educators use OER…
• to get new ideas and inspiration 82.4%
• to prepare for their teaching 72.3%
• to supplement existing lessons 70.6%
“Sometimes when I’m looking online I’ll find something
then I’m like that’s great, I’ll just kind of use that with my
students. But there’s other times I’ll see something
online and I’m like, that’s an interesting idea, I hadn’t
thought about it that way and sometimes I’ll take it and
modify it so it works better with my students.”
“I’ll see something
online and I think
‘That’s pretty good but
I know how to do it
better’.”

17. Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 marfis75 https://flic.kr/p/o4Hice
Photo CC BY 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/k5NYt
challenges

18. • Finding resources of sufficient high quality 56.4%
• Finding suitable resources in my subject area 55.2%
• Not having enough time to look for suitable resources
54.1%
• Knowing where to find resources 49.1%

19. Sample

21. Sample

22. Photo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/egpZmw
teaching

23. • ‘I use a broader range of teaching and learning
methods’ 53.8%
• ‘I have improved my skills in ICT’ 52.1%
• ‘I make use of a wider range of multimedia’ 51.6%
• ‘I reflect more on the way that I teach’ 51%
• ‘I more frequently compare my own teaching with
others’ 44.7%

24. “It used to be that when I thought about preparing for a lesson I
would look at a book and see what they did and I then would
kind of teach a lesson similar to it, but now I can go online watch
a video or look at somebody else’s material that they put out
there, see what they’re doing and either modify what they’re
doing and bring it into my classroom or just get a totally different
perspective on it and allow my students to get multiple
perspectives on a topic.”
Math teacher

25. Online vs Blended
• ‘I reflect more on the way that I
teach’ 45.5%
• ‘I more frequently compare my
own teaching with others’
45.5%
• ‘I have more up-to-date
knowledge of my subject area’
42.9%
• ‘I make use of a wider range of
multimedia’ 40.9%
• ‘I make more use of culturally
diverse resources’ 38.1%
• ‘I make more use of culturally
diverse resources’ 35.3%
• ‘I make use of a wider range of
multimedia’ 25%
• ‘I reflect more on the way that I
teach’ 23.5%
• ‘I more frequently compare my
own teaching with others’
23.5%
• ‘I have more up-to-date
knowledge of my subject area’
23.5%

26. Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 marfis75 https://flic.kr/p/o4Hice
Photo CC BY-NC 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/dgqpwt
learning

27. OER use in the K12 classroom…
• ‘Allows me to better accommodate diverse learners’
needs’ 51%
• ‘Develops learners’ increased independence and self-reliance’
48.9%
• ‘Increases learners’ satisfaction with the learning
experience’ 46.8%
• ‘Increases learners’ participation in class discussions’
46.2%
• ‘Increases learners’ experimentation with new ways of
learning’ 46.1%

28. “This course has been fully developed from scratch without [copyright
restrictions] and is released free on the web for any teacher or student
to use or remix. As a result, I do not treat this curriculum as
mine –it belongs to the class and to the world.”
https://sites.google.com/a/byron.k12.mn.us/stats4g/home/syllabus

29. Photo CC BY-NC 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/dA7Vg

30. “If we want OER to become the default, we need
people to use OER and to know that they are using
OER”.
TJ Bliss, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
http://tjbliss.org/the-doctor-and-the-gym/

31. Thank you
b.de-los-arcos@open.ac.uk
@celTatis
Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/62NbiE

32. in service of The Open University