The document discusses key issues around open educational resources (OER) including discoverability, licensing options, copyright concerns, quality, and sustainability. It notes that OER are siloed without standardized metadata making them difficult to find. Licensing options through Creative Commons provide varying levels of openness for reuse and remixing. Copyrighted materials make up most of what students use and fair use defenses are expensive. Quality of OER is a concern without traditional peer review though studies show students perform equally well with OER. Sustainability challenges include gaining buy-in, technical infrastructure, partner support, and ongoing funding streams as OER do not generate profits for institutions.

1. Locating OER

2. Discoverability
Why haven’t OER disrupted the
traditional educational model?
Resources are siloed with no
standardized metadata,
infrastructure, or sequencing.

3. Public Domain
● Material that is not eligible to
be copyrighted (titles, facts,
etc.)
● Material assigned to public
domain by creator
● Material with expired
copyrightexamples: DPLA,
Smithsonian Institution,
Project Gutenberg

4. Creative Commons
● Licensing options that protect
creator while allowing for reuse,
remixing, and redistribution
● Varying levels of “openness”
● examples: Creative Commons;
OER Commons; Open Textbook
Library; OPEN; filter results on
Google, Youtube, and more

5. Copyright and Licensing
Concerns
● Fair Use is ambiguous and
expensive to defend (see Georgia
State University’s copyright battle)
● Copyrighted material make up the
majority of what students use for
courses
● Material is expensive and time
consuming to produce--creatorsoften believe copyright
is the only model to
protect their rights

6. Discussion Questions
Describe the differences between licensing options.
How do the different licensing options impact how you would use them?
What limitations make it difficult to implement OER in your courses? How would
you address them?

7. Quality
How do OER compare?

8. Traditional Publishing Cycle

9. Alternative Publishing Cycles

10. Quality Control in OER Publishing Cycle
● Finding is just the first step…
● Peer review is rare in OER
publishing
● OER can be disconnected from
end user and feedback

11. No Significant Difference
● Across 11 academic studies that attempted to measure results pertaining to
student learning (48,623 students participated) none showed results in which
students who utilized OER performed worse than their peers who used
traditional textbooks.
● Allen, G., et al. (2015) | Bowen, W. G., et al. (2012) | Bowen, W. G., et al.
(2014) | Feldstein, A., et al. (2012) | Gil, P., et al. (2013) | Hilton, J., et al.
(2013) | Hilton, J., & Laman, C. (2012) | Lovett, M., Meyer, O., & Thille, C.
(2008) | Pawlyshyn, B., et al. (2013) | Robinson T. J., et al. (2014) |
Wiley, D., et al. (2012)

12. Discussion Questions
How do publishing models impact quality?
Do you have concerns about finding quality resources? Where can you ask for
help when selecting OER?
What strategies could you envision using to ensure you’ve selected quality OER?

13. Sustainability
Buy-In
Tech
Partner
Funds

14. Funds
● OER save students money, but not institutions; OER do not generate profits
● Granting institutions: universities (SUNY, Umass Amherst, Portland State, etc.),
foundations (Hewlett, Gates, etc.), government (state and federal), and
Professional Organizations (CALI)
● Consider other publishing models

15. Collaboration
● Discovering, integrating, and implementing OER is time-consuming--consider
partnerships beyond your department
● Library, bookstore, student services, student government
● Don’t reinvent the wheel--connect with OER community outside of your
institution, too

16. Emerging Technology
● Maintain accessibility in all formats
● Consider sharing and adding your OER to repository
● Think outside the box...OER are not just limited to textbooks--whole courses,
multimedia, code, etc. can be licensed with Creative Commons

17. Buy-In
● OER projects require infrastructure, support, and time
● Work as departments or instructional units for large-scale $0 cost or Z degree
initiatives
● Connect OER to institutional mission

18. Discussion Questions
What OER advocates can you identify elsewhere on campus who you could
collaborate with?
Can you think of ways your entire department would benefit from your OER
project?
How do you currently consider accessibility needs in your classroom? Would OER
change that? Why or why not?