Explorations into Open Education

During the Open Education 2017 conference , I spent my time attending sessions that highlighted different approaches for developing and sustaining open educational resources (OER) models at higher ed institutions. Some sessions highlighted the importance of student advocacy , while others focused on the role the library can play or innovative institutional PD programming for faculty. I took really detailed notes for one key reason... My university currently doesn't have a coordinated OER plan. via GIPHY That's right! Unfortunately, York University doesn't have a pilot, task force, or any kind of system-wide approach to advocating and supporting OER at the moment. However, I feel like York has the right ingredients to develop a successful OER program on campus: 1) Engaged Student Body York's main undergraduate student union, York Federation Students , is a force for change at my university. They've created successful campaigns that advocated for the ...

You might have heard the term 'open educational resources' (OER) at conferences, committee meetings, or teaching workshops around campus. This post will highlight some of the key 'whats & whys' of OER for faculty. Read on to learn more about OER basics! WHAT's AN OER? OER can exist in a variety of ways. They might be a textbook, a lesson plan, a test bank, or an educational video. However, for a teaching resource to be an OER, it needs to be licensed in such a way that anyone can freely access, download, reuse, and even revise the content. Licensing permissions for OER are guided by the 5R framework: Retain: users of the content have the right to make, own, and control copies of an OER Reuse: the content can be reused in many ways such as for a lecture, a course reading, or personal study Revise : the OER can be adapted and modified by users Remix:  the original or revised OER content can be combined with other open educational resources to cr...