Iterating Toward Openness

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

Student: I’ll study whether students learn better with OER than with traditional course materials! ” In other words, when you read OER research that shows a difference in student learning, look harder – there’s likely more going on than just a change in materials. Me: Let’s hear it!

OER 143

OER Comparison Study Course 143

Edsurge

JANUARY 15, 2019

But fans of OER are increasingly facing a problem. While OER started off as free online textbooks, it still costs money to produce these materials, and professors often need guidance finding which ones are high quality. So OER advocates are realizing they need to change their pitch.

OER 144

OER Course Resources Libraries 144

Iterating Toward Openness

JANUARY 24, 2019

Among other things, the post discusses her role in my decision to abandon the phrase “open pedagogy” and adopt the phrase “OER-enabled pedagogy.” Evolving ‘Open Pedagogy’ (2014) extends the definition discussion by briefly meditating on the ubiquitous, smothering role of copyright in our lives.

OER 113

OER Technology Exercises Online Learning 113

Digital Promise

APRIL 25, 2019

In traditional science classrooms, students are often presented with facts and definitions to memorize, or they are asked to follow a predetermined set of instructions to complete a lab activity. However, this model of instruction does not align with our emerging understanding of how students learn science best.

OER 296

OER Learning Report Resources 296

Iterating Toward Openness

MAY 2, 2017

At the Hewlett OER Meeting last week over a dozen people spent another hour talking about the issue during the unconference time. Some definitions are centered on OER. There have even been arguments made that a clear definition would somehow be antithetical to the ideal of open. There have been dozens of blog posts.

OER 96

OER Exercises Google Meeting 96

Iterating Toward Openness

MARCH 15, 2018

” Stephen’s fears of conversion are possible in part because his definition of OER begins with access: Access is most frequently left off the definition of OERs, and yet is the most important. I think that Stephen and I both agree that the copy of the textbook available at the download link above is an OER.

OER 86

OER Accessibility Resources Examples 86

Edsurge

JUNE 16, 2020

Lumen Learning, a company that sells low-cost OER textbooks and courseware, plans to start offering professional development services for faculty that can be bundled with its titles. In other words, some of its textbooks are now sold with coaching on how to teach with OER more effectively.

OER 120

OER Company Learning Course 120

Doug Levin

MAY 16, 2016

What I do want to comment on (in greater than 140 characters) is the practice of ‘openwashing:’ what it is, why I believe not being able to go beyond a pro-OER elephant test for organizations and service providers is untenable in practice, and some thoughts on what we can do about it. The Pro-OER Elephant Test.

OER 170

OER Software Company Twitter 170

A Principal's Reflections

MAY 20, 2018

Emerging technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, open education resources (OER), coding, and adaptive learning tools are moving more into the mainstream in some schools. Definitions of digital leadership vary and have pretty much become a semantic issue. Leadership is leadership ladies and gentlemen.

OER 290

OER Personal Learning Network Outcomes Blended Learning 290

Iterating Toward Openness

JULY 23, 2018

By definition, open educational resources (OER) are licensed in a manner that gives you permission to change, update, and improve them. Learning analytics, on the other hand, can provide great insight into where course materials – including OER – are not effectively supporting student learning.

OER 94

OER Learning Analytics Analysis Course 94

Iterating Toward Openness

SEPTEMBER 4, 2024

Next week I hope to post the first section of the presentation, which outlines the reasons why people who care deeply about affordability, access, and improving outcomes should consider shifting their focus away from OER (as we have understood it for the last 25+ years) and toward generative AI.

OER 133

OER Resources Education Examples 133

Iterating Toward Openness

JANUARY 16, 2020

Despite my best efforts, I spent much of the recent holiday break thinking about the eviscerated definition of OER in the final version of the UNESCO OER Recommendation. As I fretted about the holes in the final language and the size of the various trucks you could drive through them, I also reflected on the 5Rs.

OER 142

OER 142

The Hechinger Report

MARCH 13, 2018

These OER – open educational resources – may be good, bad or indifferent. There’s more bad OER out there than good; that’s a fact,” said Rebecca Kockler, assistant superintendent of academic instruction for the state of Louisiana, at the annual SXSWedu conference last week in Austin, Texas. Using OER wasn’t our goal,” Kockler said.

OER 90

OER How To Common Core Instructional Materials 90

Iterating Toward Openness

MARCH 11, 2020

In the first installment on Monday, I explained how a fundamental failure to understand copyright makes the definition of OER in the new UNESCO recommendation nonsensical. In the second installment yesterday, I described how it appears that many in the OER community have taken their eye off the ball of student learning.

OER 78

OER Case Study System Strategy 78

Iterating Toward Openness

FEBRUARY 17, 2020

the internet, knowledge, OER) is a commons. The problems the open education community faces with regard to OER are not the problems of common pool resources – problems of overuse and depletion that we solve through shared governance and accountability. The world needs much more OER. That’s just not a thing.

OER 128

OER Resources Accessibility Education 128

Iterating Toward Openness

AUGUST 8, 2018

Yesterday, Phil Hill wrote about OpenStax’s new method for calculating the savings students see when their faculty adopt OER. This research is now eight years old and definitely needs to be refreshed. Welcome Change: OpenStax using more accurate data on student textbook expenditures. Or whatever the number is?

OER 74

OER Data Course Study 74

Edsurge

MARCH 1, 2018

His work has shown him that “it will definitely be a more sustainable initiative if it is collaborative—-whether it's OER, open access journals, etc.if OERs are often undervalued compared to their paid counterparts, posited Blake Gore of Vanderbilt University and Tanya Spilovy thinks librarians can help.

Libraries 158

Libraries Digital Learning OER Learning 158

Iterating Toward Openness

JULY 5, 2017

Last week I shared a little of my thinking about the problems inherent in the way people in the field talk about OER. These permissions are a critical part of the definition of what it means for a learning resource to be open. The OER produced by OpenStax are free – that’s why they’re OER.

OER 103

OER Examples Survey System 103

Iterating Toward Openness

NOVEMBER 7, 2016

If you’ve heard me talk about open in the last three years you’ve heard me provide a two-part definition that can be summarized as “free plus permissions.” OER are free because you have permission to make as many copies as you like. In the meantime, enjoy this classic post from 2012 – 2017: RIP, OER?

OER 121

OER Resources Study Groups 121

Iterating Toward Openness

OCTOBER 12, 2015

He writes, “While to an OER advocate faculty are mere pawns to their agenda, to publishers, faculty are critical partners in academic success.” ” The overwhelming majority of OER advocates are faculty, and they have become OER advocates for two reasons.

OER 60

OER Course Examples Outcomes 60

Iterating Toward Openness

JULY 5, 2023

By definition, our lack of imagination is the only limit on our ability to use these tools in novel ways. And for those of you who expect every post on this blog to be related to OER in some way (you did notice I changed the name of the blog, right?), After I have answered all the questions, give me feedback on my answers again.’

OER 178

OER Exercises Case Study Instructional Materials 178

Edsurge

OCTOBER 30, 2017

Using OER is hard. Over sandwiches and iced tea, we talked about the challenges of OER. The goal is to not give readers a list of words and definitions to memorize, but rather to get them familiar with words and their place in language and knowledge. Finding good lessons, videos, articles and activities is hard. Source: BHP.

OER 130

OER Common Core Video Assessment 130

Iterating Toward Openness

APRIL 29, 2016

Earlier this week I read an op-ed – sponsored by Pearson – titled “If OER is the answer, what is the question?” OER often shine in their variety and ability to deepen resources for niche topics. ” The article poses three questions and answers them. Below I share some thoughts prompted by the article.

OER 60

OER Instructional Materials Pearson Resources 60

Iterating Toward Openness

APRIL 25, 2019

I spend most of my time doing fairly tactical thinking and working focused on moving OER adoption forward in the US higher education space. In this vision of the world, OER replace traditionally copyrighted, expensive textbooks for all primary, secondary, and post-secondary courses. My end goal isn’t to increase OER adoption.

OER 79

OER Course Company Smartphone 79

Edsurge

JANUARY 9, 2018

One crucial part of the decision is out of the students’ hands, of course, since it is the professor who decides what textbook or material to assign—or whether to skip commercial textbooks altogether and assign a free or low-cost open educational resource, or OER. I thought it was just as helpful as any other textbook.”

Company 153

Company OER Course Libraries 153

Iterating Toward Openness

OCTOBER 14, 2015

For some reason, Pearson have found it necessary to create new definitions of the terms efficacy and effectiveness. This is extraordinarily unfortunate because there are already perfectly good definitions established in the broader research community. That’s a fight I know OER can win. Efficacy vs Effectiveness.

Pearson 60

Pearson OER Comparison Case Study 60

Iterating Toward Openness

JUNE 30, 2017

In a recent webinar about OER, organized by one of the major textbook publishers, there was a lot of conversation about whether OER are “free” or “affordable.” Before I begin though, just to be clear, allow me to reaffirm that OER are free, plain and simple, full stop, period. OER = free + permissions.

OER 102

OER LMS Analysis Outcomes 102

Edsurge

OCTOBER 17, 2017

In fact, you definitely will find spotty quality. I hear more often these days about teaching with free online materials instead of traditional textbooks (known as OER). The OER conversation is very energized right now, and it's a complex conversation. I tend to focus on aspects of OER depending on the audience.

OER 131

OER Education E-rate Social Media 131

Edsurge

JUNE 27, 2016

Back in February, an EdWeek Market brief reported that Amazon Education was starting to beta-test a new platform with educators, helping teachers navigate the jungles of open educational resources (or OERs, for short). Tory Patterson, co-founder of Owl Ventures As far as calling itself an OER platform, that is somewhat correct.

OER 113

OER Resources Education Software 113

Edsurge

NOVEMBER 1, 2018

which acts like a search engine that finds definitions related to that concept or idea. will then use that information to refine the definition of that original term. BBookX uses artificial intelligence to create OER texts for professors to use in their courses instead of traditional textbooks.

Robotics 148

Robotics OER Industry Education 148

Edsurge

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

Those in the puppy camp argued, with good reason, that free curricula and OER content were hardly free once the related costs and risks were factored in. So the discovery, vetting, and alignment costs inflicted upon the teachers and districts that would try to embrace free and OER content would remain high.

OER 60

OER EdTech Company Common Core 60

K12 Open Ed

MAY 3, 2016

Photos and definitions are not only very granular but they are relatively generic and can be used in a wide variety of contexts without a lot of rework. So is the quest to allow customization through OERs for naught? Or does it make more sense to look at customizing OERs in terms of larger “full course” materials?

OER 100

OER Instructional Materials Assessment Course 100

Iterating Toward Openness

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

For many years now what people call OER advocacy has actually been “zero textbook cost” advocacy. So for the last decade or so there has been a lot of energy devoted to either “OER programs with a laser focus on cost savings” or “zero textbook cost” programs.

Policies 83

Policies OER Advocacy Education 83

Edsurge

JUNE 13, 2019

And teacher mobility definitely encourages students to pay more attention to the learning and instruction that’s going on. teacher mobility definitely encourages students to pay more attention to the learning and instruction that’s going on. Is the technology easy to use?

Tools 142

Tools How To Classroom OER 142

Iterating Toward Openness

NOVEMBER 4, 2019

Where Michael sees three groups with different goals, I see four groups who are trying to use OER to solve closely related – but ultimately very different – problems: The negative impact on access to education caused by the high price of traditional learning materials. a community? a discipline?)

Strategy 105

Strategy OER Analysis Groups 105

Iterating Toward Openness

NOVEMBER 13, 2017

[Back in 2012 – 2013] I was impressed (like many others I’m sure) with how Wiley was able to frame the cost-savings argument around open textbooks to build broader interest for OERs. I fear it is OER wanting it both ways. The question we must each ask ourselves is – what is the real goal of our OER advocacy?

Accessibility 90

Accessibility OER Pearson MOOC 90

Iterating Toward Openness

MARCH 10, 2020

I posted the first installment yesterday, explaining how a fundamental failure to understand copyright makes the definition of OER in the new UNESCO recommendation nonsensical. In this second installment, I want to describe how it appears that many in the OER community have taken their eye off the ball.

OER 78

OER Advocacy Course Report 78