The OER Movement

We started to explore some open educational resources (OERs) during class last week, though this is hardly the first time that I have heard the term, or encountered some of these platforms. Many of the resources that we were introduced were new to me – not really surprising – but some of the sites that I am already familiar with include:

• TedED – I love finding videos to support what we are doing in class, and to give students a break from lectures, discussions, having to listen to me, etc.
  • easy to search, lots of different topics to explore
• Khan Academy – has been an invaluable resource as I venture into teaching financial literacy
  • really well organized, and it’s easy to find what you are looking for
• OER Commons
  • a little overwhelming! And it takes time to sort through and find things that are really of use
• coursera – Remember how popular The Science of Well-being was during COVID?
  • I love free opportunities for further learning! And maybe – when I’m not quite as busy with working and going to school – I will explore more courses some day

So when I am talking about my experiences with OERs, that’s kind of where I’m coming from, plus the bit of exploration we did together.

The Values I See in OERs

At its core, I think I really like the idea of OERs. They have so much value and potential, and I love the idea of increasing access to high-quality learning materials without cost being a barrier. Knowledge should never be hidden behind barriers.

And as a teacher, there are some things I really love about having access to sites like these.

• It’s Free! And who doesn’t like free?! Ok, maybe it’s not quite free in some cases, but a lot of OERs do have some free content, or a free tier, and when it comes to finding content to use in classrooms, I don’t want to use my own money to pay for access or memberships (and schools don’t have huge budgets to account for numerous memberships).
• I can adapt as needed, which is a huge benefit depending on the group that I’m teaching, if I need to increase the rigour, or bring it down a few levels, etc. Flexibility, and being able to adapt these materials, can help keep things relevant.
• Ongoing and Updated Relevance. This builds upon my last point, where a lot of OERs can be continuously updated, or you have multiple authors contributing to help keep information current and up-to-date. This is especially valuable to fields impacted by rapid change. When I look at the price students (including ourselves!) have to pay for textbooks, it makes so much more sense to use OERs than to purchase books that are going to be coming out with new editions the following year.

So Would/Do We Use Them?

In theory, I like OERs. I can’t see why you wouldn’t like OERs.

In practice, though, it really depends on the teacher, and the semester, and so many other factors.

While I appreciate accessible content, for example, and I love finding new ideas and lessons and what not to bring into my classroom, OERs can feel overwhelming, and it can take a lot of time to sift and sort through the resources to find things that really work. The quality isn’t always there, and I find that I’ll go looking for new resources, and I end up having to do a lot of leg work to tweak and finesse things before I can actually use some lessons or videos or what not.

Every OER is different, so it can be hard to explore beyond what you have become familiar with, despite the fact that other OERs may have information or resources that could be just as, or more, useful.

So while I’m a huge fan of OERs, and am quite comfortable working with a few, there are still a lot of hiccups and bumps to deal with when you are delving into them.

At their best, OERs not only reduce barriers to learning, but they also build a culture of sharing, creativity, and collaboration. If they are going to become a more normalized part of education, there are definitely some areas were improvements could make a huge different, including better organization for some sites, a way to weed out what isn’t really worth the time it takes to review something, and PD. This is a newer phenomenon, and a lot of teachers know how to Google, but don’t know a lot about OERs, and their possibilities. But overall, I love that this is an option now, and am excited to see where this leads us.

**in order to maintain absolute transparency, all ideas and writing are my own, but I did use AI to help organize my thoughts this week**