1. Open Educational Resources (OER)
Center for Technology Enhanced Learning
Open Educational Resources (OER)
April 12, 2016

2. Agenda Introductions Overview of OER A Look at Open-Source Textbooks
Definition
OER a Virtuous Cycle
Open-v-Free
Creative Commons Licensing
OER Resources
A Look at Open-Source Textbooks
Background
Resources

3. OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

4. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

5. The 4 Rs: Reuse Rework Remix Redistribute
Use the work verbatim (unaltered), without having to ask permission. Revise - Alter or transform the work to meet your needs Remix - Combine the (verbatim or altered) work with other works for enhanced effect Redistribute - Share the verbatim, reworked, or remixed work with others.
Image courtesy of Recyclethis

6. OER’s Virtuous Cycle
Open educational resources enable pedagogical innovation
Find
Compose
Adapt
Use
Share
License
OER are represented in standard formats that can be edited and manipulated with free software for a wide variety of reasons including file conversion for access on different media (e.g., on paper, CD/DVD, via mobile devices, in multimedia presentations), re-purposing for various language and educational levels, etc.

7. Free-v-Open
Free is a monetary concept, materials are free to access but not remix or revise.
Open is a social concept, an open resource can be remixed or revised with other open resources

8. Evaluating OER
Provenance Make sure OER material is coming from a reputable source Licensing The license controls what can be done with the work. The first consideration should be if the material is actually allowed to be used

9. FAIR USE
Purpose Is it being used for a non-commercial, educational purpose? Nature Is it factual of non-fiction? Published or Unpublished? Amount How much of the copyrighted material have you used? Effect Does the use diminish the value of the original work?

10. Creative Commons Licensing
By Creative commons - CC BY 4.0

11. OER Resources https://www.merlot.org/merlot/signup.htm

12. Open-SourceTextbooks
Why bother?
Open-SourceTextbooks

13. What is an open-source textbook?
Wikipedia, April 11, 2016: “An open textbook is a textbook licensed under an open copyright license, and made available online to be freely used by students, teachers and members of the public. Many open textbooks are distributed in either print, e-book, or audio formats that may be downloaded or purchased at little or no cost.”
Copyright free (DRM-free)
No cost
Open to anyone
Usually available as a PDF
Often produced by a university

14. The Problem:
University of Michigan, “…between December of and December of 2004, textbook prices increased at twice the rate of inflation, increasing by 186 percent.
According to the College Board (2015) textbooks and supplied average $1,200-$1,300 per academic year.
Students could save $128 per course if faculty switched to open-source textbooks.
Student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups) found that the high cost of textbooks can interfere with education.

15. The Confusion: U of MN found that faculty members…
Don’t fully understand how financial stress impacts student academically
Are not aware that open textbooks are an option
Don’t know what open textbooks are or confuse them with electronic textbooks
Don’t know where to find open textbooks
Are skeptical of the quality of open textbooks

16. The Response:
A small pilot group of faculty at U of MN “saved students over $380,000 in textbook costs in less than 3 years.”
Open Textbook Network (U of MN, Purdue, U of OK, Oregon State, Virginia Tech, CalPoly Tech, Cleveland State, Ohio State)

17. How can USM faculty learn more and access open textbooks?
Library homepage>Subject & Course Guides>Hot Topics>Open-Source Textbooks
Open Textbook Library (U of MN),
UNC-Charlotte,
Digital Commons,

18. How can USM faculty create them?
Librarians regularly add USM faculty content to the Digital Commons
Work with USM Libraries to add any PDF Word document to the Digital Commons (Brewing chemistry)

19. Other options:
SpringerLink (database) now includes hundreds of textbooks that are “free” to USM student and faculty. Go to Databases A-Z, then SpringLink on the library website.

20. Bill Grubb Coordinator of Reference & Instruction USM Libraries William.Grubb@maine.edu 780-4672

21. Discussion

22. Resources https://www.merlot.org/merlot/signup.htm