Social determinants of learning (SDOL) impact students’ abilities to successfully complete their courses. An economic barrier for vulnerable students is the skyrocketing cost of textbooks. An innovative strategy to promote equity in educational delivery is the adoption of open educational resources (OER). The Open Resources for Nursing (Open RN) project published five OER textbooks with input from over 65 contributors and 300 reviewers. Open RN textbooks have received widespread national and international usage. Analysis of student outcomes indicates similar successful course completion rates by all students in OER course sections and increased rates of successful course completion by non-White students.

As faculty, you assess textbooks against a set of criteria that reflects your long experience and knowledge of student needs. You do the same with Open Textbooks, but there are a few additional considerations.

This guide will provide you with more information about open licensing and walk you through all the steps needed to apply an open license on your work.

Please note: This guide is provided for informational purposes only. Nothing in this document should be considered as legal advice.

The objective of this module is to show the many ways you can quickly and easily find OER materials in OER Commons. This module, “Finding OER Materials,” is activity-based; you'll be guided through the process of finding OER materials you can start using in your teaching and learning.

Open Education Week is an ideal time to hear from our community members who are leading open education initiatives on their campuses and across their states to reduce costs for students and empower faculty to enhance learning in their classrooms. We will hear from two OER librarians and a faculty member who are successfully growing awareness and adoption of open educational resources. They will share the successes and challenges of coordinating statewide efforts and influencing their colleagues to adopt OER in their courses.

Brief video describing where and how to find Open Educational Resources, including specific repositories and licences to look for.

The growing body of online educational resources is helping to create universal access to language education. This is a good thing. Use this introductory guide to find open resources for your classroom. The OER ecosystem works best when everybody contributes content. Consider sharing your own. Educators often supplement foreign language textbooks. Perhaps your students need more grammar, authentic L2 materials, or listening practice exercises. Go to an open content search page. For example, Creative Commons offers a system of open licensing which enables resource sharing. Their CC search page is a great place to start. However, finding openly licensed educational resources (OER)—which can be edited, built upon, and shared without copyright restrictions—isnʼt always easy.

OER programs provide an opportunity for students to earn a certificate or associates degree without incurring the cost of textbooks for their courses. This can dramatically reduce the cost of attendance and has been estimated at 25% or more savings*. Most OER programs are developed to serve the neediest students who may otherwise have to defer college or take fewer courses due to prohibitive cost. Reaching the students who could most benefit most from enrolling in OER courses can prove to be a challenge in of itself. We will hear from speakers who have developed successful strategies at their colleges to create awareness and encourage underrepresented students to enroll in OER degree programs targeted at their academic success.

We will start the lesson discussing what open educational resources are. Please watch the video first and read through the content. It is important to understand the concept of open educational resources as it will be the base for the rest of the modules.

Why do open educational resources matter? What is the point of using OER? Below are some of the benefits of using open educational resources that I have seen while working with OER over the past several years.

The toolkit is made up of three elements:
1). information and resources to support your evaluation activities
2). an interactive tool to guide you through our Evaluation and Synthesis framework, providing an opportunity to submit findings, observations and links to evidence AND which feeds this back to you for inclusion in your project reporting mechanisms
3). examples of evaluation materials, instruments and reports from other UKOER projects

Open Data as Open Educational Resources Case studies of emerging practice is a collection of narratives reflecting good practices in the use of open data in teaching and learning.

The OEL Toolkit is openly available and openly licensed. The guidance generated by the OEL Toolkit is of primary relevance to educators and developers working within Australian higher education institutions. The OEL Toolkit web application has been designed with a focus on ease of use. It provides relevant information for users seeking guidance on using, creating, modifying or sharing a specific Open Educational Resource.

Asynchronous self-guided workshop series designed to guide college faculty through the process of develop, adapting, and/or creating Open Educational Resources for their courses. These workshops were designed specifically to support faculty and staff participating in the Open Western OER Fellowship program at Western Technical College in La Crosse, WI.

Each workshop includes video tutorials, written instruction, and editable templates to support each phase of OER development. Each of the four workshops guides participants through one phase of the OER development:

Workshop 1: Project Planning guides participants through an initial planning phase, in hopes of laying the groundwork for a successful project. It's designed to help participants think through their end product and what will be needed to make it a reality.

Workshop 2: Project Creation covers the core activities of content adaptation, remix, and original creation. This is also where important practical tasks are introduced including using outside source material and prioritizing accessibility.

Workshop 3: Revising and Publishing takes participants through a guided revision process and then leads into final publication.

Workshop 4: Teaching with OER has participants evaluate the creation process and plan for the future. This workshop also discuss ways to use your OER with students and begin to incorporate concepts of open pedagogy into their classrooms.

A brief video where OER experts give their reasons for working in the field of Open Educational Resources. Primary reasons include empowering teachers, equalizing access to education, reducing teachers' worries about copyright, reducing educational costs, and facilitating the open flow of information.