The OER Starter Kit

This starter kit has been created to provide instructors with an introduction to the use and creation of open educational resources (OER). The text is broken into five sections: Getting Started, Copyright, Finding OER, Teaching with OER, and Creating OER. Although some chapters contain more advanced content, the starter kit is primarily intended for users who are entirely new to Open Education. [Version 1.1. Revised September 5th, 2019.]

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Abbey Elder

Adoption Guide - 2nd Edition

The second edition is an updated and expanded version of the original adoption guide. The first sections address three distinct groups involved in open textbook adoption: instructors, post-secondary institutions, and students. The second--most comprehensive--section focuses on the operational aspects of adoption: surveying instructors about, tracking usage of, and reporting out about open textbooks (and other OER). The last "Learn More" part provides additional adoption information.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Lauri M. Aesoph

Adaptation Guide: A reference to adapting or revising an open textbook

The Adaptation Guide is a practical reference about how to customize — or adapt — an open textbook so that it better fits your needs in the classroom and elsewhere. This guide defines the term adaptation and discusses reasons for revising a book, why this is possible with an open textbook, and the challenges involved.

Material Type: Textbook

Authoring Open Textbooks

This guide is for faculty authors, librarians, project managers and others who are involved in the production of open textbooks in higher education and K-12. Content includes a checklist for getting started, publishing program case studies, textbook organization and elements, writing resources and an overview of useful tools.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Anita R. Walz, Caitie Finlayson, Cody Taylor, Deb Quentel, Dianna Fisher, Karen Bjork, Karen Lauritsen, Linda Frederiksen, Melissa Falldin, Ralph Morelli, Shane Nackerud

Permissions Guide for Educators

This guide provides a primer on copyright and use permissions. It is intended to support teachers, librarians, curriculum experts and others in identifying the terms of use for digital resources, so that the resources may be appropriately (and legally) used as part of lessons and instruction. The guide also helps educators and curriculum experts in approaching the task of securing permission to use copyrighted materials in their classrooms, collections, libraries or elsewhere in new ways and with fewer restrictions than fair use potentially offers. The guide was created as part of ISKME's Primary Source Project, and is the result of collaboration with copyright holders, intellectual property experts, and educators.* "Copyright license choice" by opensource.com is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Mindy Boland

OER: A Field Guide for Academic Librarians

We intend this book to act as a guide writ large for would-be champions of OER, that anyone—called to action by the example set by our chapter authors—might serve as guides themselves. The following chapters tap into the deep experience of practitioners who represent a meaningful cross section of higher education institutions in North America. It is our hope that the examples and discussions presented by our authors will facilitate connections among practitioners, foster the development of best practices for OER adoption and creation, and more importantly, lay a foundation for novel, educational excellence.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Andrew Wesolek, Anne Langley, Jonathan Lashley

Module 1: Introduction to This Course

By the end of this course, you should be able to: -Define Open Educational Resources -Explain the rationale for OER adoption and use -Explain the differences between the six currently available Creative Commons licenses -Identify repositories and other resources for finding relevant OER -Use tools and criteria to evaluate OER -Recognize steps and associated criteria for adapting and creating OER with proper attribution and licensing -Create an open educational resource -Review the current landscape of OER in Texas Higher Education -Recognize different Texas legislation on OER

Material Type: Module

Author: Carrie Gits

Module 2: Understanding OER

The nonprofit organization Creative Commons provides the following definition of open educational resources (OER): “Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are either (a) in the public domain or (b) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities.” In Texas, Senate Bill 810 (SB 810), which was signed into law in June 2017, further defines OER as follows: “‘Open educational resource’ means a teaching, learning, or research resource that is in the public domain or has been released under an intellectual property license that permits the free use, adaptation, and redistribution of the resource by any person. The term may include full course curricula, course materials, modules, textbooks, media, assessments, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques, whether digital or otherwise, used to support access to knowledge.” The key distinguishing factor of this type of educational resource is the copyright status of the material. If course content is under a traditional, all-rights-reserved copyright, then it’s not an OER. If it resides in the public domain or has been licensed for adaptation and distribution, then it is an OER.

Material Type: Module

Authors: Carrie Gits, Judith Sebesta

Module 3: Why OER?

Before we discuss the benefits of OER in detail, please take a few minutes to watch this video from Abbey Elder, Open Access & Scholarly Communications Librarian at Iowa State University. The video reviews the definition of OER but also provides a broad overview of why OER is an effective solution in addressing student barriers to high-quality learning materials. The video also provides examples of how faculty can use OER to enhance their teaching and improve student learning.

Material Type: Module

Author: Carrie Gits

Module 4: Introduction to Open Licensing

Did you realize these course modules are an OER? Do you want to reuse the content, modify it for your students or colleagues? Guess what … you can, with attribution of course! You’ll learn more about reusing open content and explicit open license permissions, such as attribution, in Module 7. However, understanding what makes it possible for you to reuse, modify, and reshare this work is the first step. These activities are legal because when it was created the author released it with an open license. When discussing open licensing it also is necessary to review definitions of important terms and legal requirements of laws and principles applied to a creator’s work and how it can be used or reused. In addition to introducing and defining open licenses, this module will review and define copyright, fair use, and public domain.

Material Type: Module

Author: Carrie Gits

Module 5: Finding & Evaluating OER

Modules 1-4 provided you with a solid introduction to various aspects of open educational resources such as the benefits to using OER, the 5R Framework, and open licensing. In this module, you will apply what you now know about OER and start finding the variety of open resources available to you. Through this module, you will be exposed to a variety of search strategies used in locating and finding relevant OER, and you will explore some of the more useful online repositories and sites which host OER. This module will also focus on elements of evaluating OER.

Material Type: Module

Author: Carrie Gits

Module 6: Accessibility

Faculty are required to ensure that the teaching materials we use are accessible to all students. Applying a universal design approach to your curriculum allows you to improve accessibility for all learners.

Material Type: Module

Author: Carrie Gits

Module 7: Creative Commons Licensing In-Depth

CCBY CCBYSA CCBYNC CCBYNCSA CCBYNCND: No, that wasn’t a typo! The acronyms above are representative of the six different Creative Commons (CC) licenses. In Module 4 you were introduced to open licenses and how they differ from all rights reserved copyright. In this module, you will learn about the different conditions and permissions of these licenses.

Material Type: Module

Author: Carrie Gits

Module 8: Adapting, Creating & Sharing OER

In the previous seven modules, you’ve learned a great deal about open educational resources and how they can be used as effective teaching and learning material in your courses. In this module, you will gain experience in applying what you’ve learned to successfully adopt, adapt, and create an OER.

Material Type: Module

Author: Carrie Gits

Open Educational Resources (OER) in Texas Higher Education, 2019

This report is based on an independent survey commissioned in 2019 by the Digital Higher Education Consortium of Texas (DigiTex), in collaboration with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), and the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME).

Material Type: Reading

Authors: Anastasia Karaglani, Cynthia Jimes, Jose Rios, Judith Sebesta, Kylah Torre, Lisa Petrides

SPARC Landscape Analysis and Roadmap for Action - 2021 Update

The increasing concentration of scholarly communications, courseware publishing, and data analytics into the hands of fewer commercial vendors continues to raise concerns, particularly in the absence of evidence that publishers have any interest in mind other than their short-term revenue and profit growth. The focus on protecting revenues even in the face of deep academic budget cuts, the relentless lobbying to protect “inclusive access” practices that limit student choice, and the reluctance to abandon practices that disadvantage researchers point to the conclusion that the academic community can protect its values only by increasing control of its own content and infrastructure. The past year has seen more deals that led to more concentration, loss of diversity, and ultimately to the academic community’s lessening control over its own destiny. However, there are also positive signs: a large merger failed, Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) was launched as a concerted effort to build a community-owned infrastructure, and some legislative progress was made. Much remains to be done, but the opportunity to tip the scales in favor of the interests of the knowledge community is significant and must be pursued. This 2021 Update to the SPARC Landscape Analysis further explores these trends. Supplementing observations first published in the SPARC 2019 Roadmap for Action, this document suggests organizational changes in academic institutions to both (1) manage increasing strategic and ethical challenges and (2) deploy tools and analyze data to better understand the needs and protect the interests of individuals and communities. The recommendations underscore the need for the academic community to take control of its own content and infrastructure both to best serve its own interests and to protect and further its values of equity, inclusiveness, and academic freedom.

Material Type: Primary Source

Author: SPARC

Advancing an Ecosystem for Open Educational Resources: OER in Texas Higher Education

This report presents the results of a biennial independent survey done by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) commissioned by the Digital Higher Education Consortium of Texas (DigiTex), in collaboration with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), to examine the landscape of Open Educational Resources (OER) programs, policies, and practices at higher education institutions in Texas.

Material Type: Reading

Authors: Amee Godwin, Anastasia Karaglani, Cynthia Jimes, Judith Sebesta, Kylah Torre, Michelle Singh, Ursula Pike

Texas Open Educational Resources (OER) Regional Needs Analysis

This report presents the findings of a research study, funded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and conducted by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), aiming to identify the characteristics, challenges, and needed supports of institutions with low engagement with Open Educational Resources (OER); explore which higher education regions in Texas need additional support with OER; and investigate factors that promote and hinder OER advancement in institutions that are relatively early in on their journey with OER. Utilizing the 2019 and 2021 OER Landscape Survey data and drawing from interviews with nine administrators across five higher education institutions, the report concludes with recommendations for advancing OER in Texas and beyond.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Kylah Torre

A Scan of Open Educational Resources (OER) Materials in High-Impact Higher Education Courses in Texas

This report shares the results of an OER Gap Analysis completed by the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME) for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). The analysis identified free, openly licensed full courses and textbooks for 25 highly transferable, high-enrollment courses required for two-year or four-year degree paths in high-wage/high-demand fields. Most courses selected for the scan are also Texas Core Curriculum courses. Texas high-wage/high-demand fields were identified using data from the Texas Workforce Commission and included nursing, business, accounting, computer science, engineering, and health administration. The following courses needed for multiple degree paths in these fields were selected for the scan:Science: Anatomy and Physiology I and II; Biology I; Chemistry I; Physics IMath: College Algebra; Elementary Statistical Methods; Pre-Calculus; Calculus I; Calculus IISocial Sciences: Texas Government; Federal Government; General Psychology; Introduction to Sociology; Principles of Macroeconomics, Principles of MicroeconomicsHumanities: US History I and II; Introduction to Ethics; Introduction to Philosophy; Public Speaking; Composition I; Composition IIBusiness: Business Computer Applications; Principles of Finance

Material Type: Reading

Author: Kylah Torre

"Freeing the Textbook" by Seaman & Seaman, 2018

Results of Babson Survey Research Group's 2018 study of "Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education"

Material Type: Reading

Authors: Jeff Seaman, Julia E. Seaman