Open Educational Resources
“Open Education is the development of free digitally enabled learning materials and experiences primarily by and for the benefit and empowerment of non-privileged learners who may be under-represented in education systems or marginalized in their global context” (Lambert, 2018).
Justification for Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Open Textbooks
Some students are unable to obtain instructional materials prior to the start of the term due to either a lack of financial resources or a lack of physical access.
According to the 2018 Florida Textbook Survey, textbook prices have risen 88% in the last decade (4 times the rate of inflation), and 50% of students spend more than $300 a semester. As a result:
- 64% of students skipped purchasing a textbook
- 86% of students delayed purchasing a textbook
- 43% of students take fewer courses
- 36% of students earn poorer grades
- 23% of students dropped a course
OER Improves Student Success & Equity
- “OER improve end-of-course grades and decrease DFW (D, F, and Withdrawal letter grades) rates for all students.
- They also improve course grades at greater rates and decrease DFW rates at greater rates for Pell recipient students, part-time students, and populations historically underserved by higher education.
- OER address affordability, completion, attainment gap concerns, and learning“ (Covard et al., 2018).
HCC Open Education Information
- Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Initiative
- Open Educational Resource Creation Program
- Open Educational Resources (OER) Libguide
- HCC Pressbooks Site
Open Education and Open Pedagogy
Access a printable handout version at bit.ly/oer2023
What is Open Education?
- What is Open Education? & Myths about OER and Open Textbooks
- Consortium for Open Educational Resources – see mailing list
- Events: Florida OER Summit & Open Education Week
1. Finding Openly Licensed Images and other OERs
- Google Image Search – Click on Tools -> Usage rights -> Creative Commons
- Other places to search for OERs: OER Commons, OASIS, MERLOT, Openverse
2. Finding & Adopting Open Textbooks
3. Canvas Commons
- Go to the Canvas site, log in, and click the Commons button on the left
- Search for resources there such as these Evidence-based Teaching samples
- How do I share my course to Canvas Commons?
4. Open Source Educational Software
- Free and Open Source Software for Education
- Examples: WordPress, H5P, Hypothesis, Zotero, Snap!, PHET simulations
5. Creating & Sharing Open Educational Resources
- How to share and mark your work with a Creative Commons license
- How to change the license of your YouTube video to Creative Commons
- Open Education Self-Publishing Guide. See also PressBooks & Rebus Community
- Marketing OER Toolkit
6. Open Pedagogy: Student-Created OERs
- Renewable vs. Disposable Assignments
- Real World Examples & More Examples: student videos, websites, wikis, e-books
- A Guide to Making Open Textbooks with Students
Pressbooks
- Pressbooks is an open authoring platform built on top of WordPress. It is commonly used for authoring, hosting, and copying openly-licensed textbooks. See the Pressbooks page for more information.
- Directory of openly accessible ebooks you can import: https://pressbooks.directory/
- Pressbooks Guide: https://guide.pressbooks.com/
- Pressbooks Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@Pressbooks
- Using Pressbooks to Create Collaborative Open Textbooks [with Students]
- Accessibility tips for Pressbooks
- Change default font to a sans serif one like Open Sans
H5P
- Use H5P to create open interactive widgets such as drag and drop questions, video quizzes, and the like. See the H5P page for more information.
- H5P Tutorials for Authors
- Creating interactive content with H5P in Pressbooks
Feedback/Errata