Last September, we had at UM-Dearborn a faculty panel discussion in Zoom about teaching with Open Education Resources (OER). The panelists shared information about the Open Education (OE) grants they received, how to find OE text books and other materials as well as the process to create OE books and other resources such as software.
If you have any questions about OER grants, you can contact the OE Committee at oedearborn@umich.edu. These grants are available for all UM-Dearborn faculty.
What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?
- Teaching materials that are accessible for free to anyone.
- OER includes books, syllabi, lecture notes, book chapters, course materials, multimedia content and even software.
- These materials exist in the public domain which is content that is not protected by copyright law.
- These materials were released under an open license.
- There are six different open licenses that allow people to retain, reuse, revise, remix and redistribute works.
If you are not entirely sure when copyright applies, check here why some resources can be considered to be located in the public domain. These are some cases when content is not protected by copyright:
- The copyright has expired (i.e. 70 years after death of the author, etc.)
- It was created by the U.S. federal government
- It’s not fixed in a tangible form of expression
- It’s not original work
Not all free resources are OER. Not all materials that are accessible to you for free are actually open and accessible to everybody else. For example, faculty and students have access to university library materials and can read those materials for free, but those materials are not free to everyone else. Those are not OER, because they are located behind a paywall for people not affiliated to the university.
Panelists
- Natalia Czap, Chair, Department of Social Sciences and Professor of Economics
- Maggie Yi Guo, Associate Professor of Management Information Systems Management
- Zheng (Jason) Song, Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Science
- Xiao Zhang, Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Science
- Simona Marincean, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chair, Chemistry Discipline
- Francia Martinez, Associate Professor of Spanish
Here is the faculty panel recording and you can see below some topics discussed by the panelists:
Timestamps
13:02 Simona described the OER grants she received.
16:25 Maggie explained why she incorporated OER in her class
20:40 Zheng Song (Jason) shared the process to find OER, using a wiki to share information with students that in the future could be converted to a book.
24:54 Francia described her Spanish course redesigned to incorporate OER.
29:10 Natalia shared the process of writing an OER book and her OE grant.
35:14 Xiao Zhang shared the development of an OE software.
38:38 What is the most challenging part of creating OER?
44:45 Francia explained why a traditional textbook does not fit foreign language courses.
49:00 Simona shared more of her OER work and how it is seamlessly integrated into Canvas.
Resources
What is OER? – Definition of the International Council for Open and Distance Education
Open Education – Open Education practices by SPARC, a nonprofit organization that supports open systems for research and education.
Introduction to OER in Higher Education – self-paced course from MI ExplOER.
Finding OER – tips to find OER from Creative Commons.
GoOpenMichigan – Explore the library of open education resources from Michigan educators.
What are OER and how do they differ from Open Access, Library-Licensed and Affordable Course Content? – OER definitions and differences from Mary Washington University.
My Open Textbook: Pedagogy and Practice – Robin de Rosa describes the process of creating an open book for her American literature class and the effect on pedagogy.
UM-Dearborn Open Education Campus Committee Resources – Information guide and resources from the OE committee at UM-Dearborn.
Find more OER information and teaching resources in our Hub Blog.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash