Short slide show on definition of OER and the challenges and benefits for educators.

1. FreeTeaching Resources!
The benefits and challenges of open educational resources
Debbie McLaughlin, July 2015

2. What are Open Educational Resources?
“OER”
OER are materials and resources that are in the public domain
or
have an intellectual property license that permits free use and possibly re-
mixing and altering by users.

3. Why should I care?
As an educator, you may want to:
• Contribute to the free and open sharing of information in a worldwide community.
• Minimize costs and increase access to knowledge for your students.
• Benefit from work colleagues in your field have done, that in turn will benefit your
students.

4. However….
• “Open”—though “free”—does not mean “without effort.”
• There are “costs” and challenges in utilizing OER.

5. Challenges
1 Attribution: You must research each item to ensure it’s open and available.
2 Knowledge #1: You do need familiarize yourself with the definitions of public
domain and Creative Commons licenses. However, see Benefit #2 (next slide).
3 Knowledge #2: You need to learn how to help students access OER (e.g. if you
don’t provide the material directly to them, but ask them to access a link and
print for themselves), but see Benefit #3.
4 Time: It can be time-consuming (though fun—to a point) to find appropriate
and open resources for your lesson purpose. But see Benefit #4.
5 Fit: The material may not be a perfect fit, but when you find works that can be
altered, then…see Benefit #5,

6. Benefits
1 Community: You participate in a free and open sharing of ideas, knowledge, and works.
2 Increased comfort with technology: You develop your skills navigating the digital
world.
3 Student skill development: Students learn to navigate and evaluate the rapidly
developing body of knowledge available from across the globe.
4 Access to vast amounts of material: Exploration can lead to potential new discoveries
for yourself.
5 Instructional innovation: You can alter and remix material (when permissible), leading
to enhanced works and new iterations.

7. Go explore a little
• http://creativecommons.org/ - explore the go-to method for enabling open sharing of knowledge
• http://www.openwa.org/find-oer/ - find resources via this SBCTC tool
• http://www.openwa.org/module-1/ - learn through a self-paced course
• Contact Debbie McLaughlin for assistance with any of yourOER needs.