OER at Yavapai College
Open Educational Resources (OER) are a type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license, and are freely distributed. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them (definition from UNESCO). The use of free or low-cost materials among YC Faculty continues to grow, and this effort is led by the OER Committee.
A Move in the Right Direction
What about free public content like YouTube videos? Though not technically OER (can you recognize why not?), most free and legally available content can move your course in the right direction.
The TeLS dept. supports faculty in their development, discovery and incorporation of OER/low-cost materials.
Low-cost Alternatives - $55 Threshold at YC
Today there are many low-cost alternative materials on the market. The college has decided if the total cost of a course's required materials are $55 or less, these qualify to be included in the list of OER/Low-cost materials courses linked from this web page.
How Teachers are Using and Creating OER Content
YC faculty are joining teachers around the globe in the effort to lower student costs. Below are just 3 examples of the process from their perspective.
Learn About OER
Article from InsideHigherEd “OER Awareness in HE” from Jan. 9th, 2016
Tidewater CC “Z-Degree” Program
Video of Dr. Jhangiani covers a wide spectrum OER issues and solutions:
Get Started with OER/Low-cost materials
Contact TeLS about your best options for incorporating these into your course, OR start exploring on your own with the resources linked below. Openstax is a good place to start because their texts are quite complete, though you many not find one in your discipline. The Canvas Commons is also highly recommended because the open content there easily imports into our Canvas LMS.
It is normal to use content from multiple sources along with your own content, and you will want to review it for quality and usability for your course.
Creating OER
This open course in the Canvas Network from Matthew Bloom is a great guide for creating your own OER Content: Making the Transition to Open: The Easy Way to Create, License, and Share Free Materials
Content Resources
The YC Library has Subject Guides designed for most disciplines
The Canvas Commons is full of open resources designed for your Canvas courses
OER aimed primarily at workforce development and vocational subjects (www.skillscommons.org)
Community College Consortium for OER (www.cccoer.org)
OER Commons (www.oercommons.org)
BC Campus & OpenEd ( http://open.bccampus.ca/find-open-textbooks/ )
OpenStax ( http://cnx.org/ )
OER Library at UWM ( http://open.unm.edu )
U of Arizona OER site ( https://www.oer.arizona.edu/)
Open Washington ( http://www.openwa.org/find-oer/ )
Open Oregon (http://openoregon.org)
California Open Online Library ( http://www.cool4ed.org/ )
Open Textbook LIbrary ( http://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/ )
Applied Math and Science Education Repository ( https://amser.org/SPT–Home.php )
Scottsdale Community College- Math ( https://sccmath.wordpress.com/oer/ )
MERLOT (http://www.merlot.org)