So, this is my first blog post…ever. About anything. Which is exciting! As the sign indicates, my HUB Affiliates project, working with Autumm and Belen, is on Open Educational Resources (OER). I had envisioned myself as being something of an “OER pusher” with a well-targeted audience, but broader efforts have also become part of this project, mainly thanks to Autumm.
I’ll start with “micro” (everything else is “macro”; no “nano” here, thank you very much) efforts. I’ve tried to help colleagues in math, sociology, anthropology, and composition find and adopt OER for their classes. Whether or not you’ve looked for OER yourself, resources are all over the place; if you’re on the hunt, check out the Mason OER Metafinder, with thanks to Raya Samet for pointing out this resource. My favorite place to dig is Merlot. The only issue with Merlot is I always think of the movie “Sideways” when I’m there…
As for “macro” efforts, fellow Affiliate Maya Barak enabled us to get on the DigPed at Dearborn group’s schedule in March, and we had a really lively discussion on OER. Here’s a list of all the OER resources we mentioned just in that meeting! If I were to pick my favorite thing to come out of the pandemic, it would be joining and experiencing DigPed meetings. Thanks to Maya, Autumm, and Jenn Proctor for starting this group! DigPed meets on the third Friday of every month from 1-2.
With Autumm and Raya, we also came up with the idea of OER Socials, the first of which is Wednesday 4/7/21 at 3:30. We’d like it to be an informal setting where people can come and discuss anything related to OER that comes to their minds. Only interest in OER, not experience, is necessary! If you come, I encourage you to bring a beverage; you don’t have to tell us what you’re drinking. We’ve also got a second social scheduled for 5/5/21, also at 3:30, if you can’t make the first one.
That’s it for now! I’m planning on discussing an interesting company I came across while looking for sociology resources in my next post, provided the HUB doesn’t kick me off the blog for writing this one. And just in case you need something to cheer you up, try Juan Luis Guerra.
*Featured image is shared under public domain usage rights and can be found at https://pixabay.com/images/id-1209759/