During fall, the Open Education (OE) Committee from UM- Dearborn organizes the annual faculty panel discussion about Open Education Resources (OER). On September 23, 2026 our interdisciplinary faculty shared their motivation to use OER, the benefits they noticed for using OER in their classes and their experience applying for the Open Education grants.
2026 Sep-OE faculty panel video recording (50 minutes).
Thank you to our wonderful faculty that participated in this panel discussion:
- Antonios Koumpias, Associate Professor of Economics
- John Chenoweth, Professor of Anthropology, Anthropology Discipline Coordinator
- Xiao Zhang, Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Science
- Susan Gavell, LEO Lecturer of Composition and Rhetoric
- Yiwan Ye, Assistant Professor of Health and Human Services
- Jennifer Coon, LEO Lecturer of Business Communications and Director of the Mitchell Business Communication Lab
- Samia Al-Qaisi, LEO Lecturer of Chemistry and Lab Coordinator of Chemistry
Timestamps:
0:40 Amy Seipke reminded us what is OER?
2:18 Panelists introduced themselves
3:37 Panelists shared their motivation to teach with OER
9:00 Samia, Antonios, John and Xiao described their OE grants and application process
20:00 Susan, Yiwan and Jennifer shared their experiences to find OER and librarians support
26:11 Antonios talked about benefits for students when using OER
29:14 John, Jennifer and Yiwan explained other benefits of OER
33:42 John redesigned his course entirely to incorporate OER
37:46 Jennifer described how students like using OER
39:10 Q&A
Using open educational resources (OER) provides benefits for students and faculty. Because OER allows faculty more flexibility than a textbook, instructors can adapt, reorganize, and update materials to align closely with the course’s goals, requirements, and student needs. This creates a more relevant and focused learning experience. OERs are materials that have been released under a creative open license that make them free.
Faculty can use OER in their courses based on the type of license these materials have; some licences allow faculty not only to use the materials, but also to modify them to fit their courses better. In addition, students could participate in revising or creating OER. By giving students the opportunity to work collaboratively with peers to revise or create OERs for a class, you are encouraging students to engage more actively with course content and contribute knowledge that can benefit future students.
OER can reduce or eliminate textbook costs, depending if you want to combine them with your existing materials or if you substitute your materials entirely with OER. By incorporating OER in your class, you lower financial barriers for students, which reduces student anxiety. This is something that is appreciated by all students.
For more information about what can be consider OER and which types of Creative Common (CC) licenses you can choose, see the OE committee presentation to campus from March 2026 (9 minutes).
Timestamps:
0:25 What is OER?
1:15 Examples of OER
1:25 OpenStax
2:54 GitHub
4:54 What is not OER?
5:00 Document with CC License
5:38 Types of CC Licenses
If you are currently doing work with open education, or are considering applying for OE grants, you may want to contact the OE committee at oedearborn@umich.edu