Faculty Resource Guide

Faculty Resource Guide for the OER Implement Collection Project UNC System

Welcome to the Faculty Resource Guide for the UNC System OER Implementation Collection as part of the Digital Course Enhancement Project. This Guide covers the scope of the Digital Course Enhancement Project, provides an overview of the OER Implementation Collection, and helps faculty gain an understanding of how this resource can be used as a companion guide to the UNC Course Collection Libraries as well as an instrument for Open Educational Resources training.

Team Members, Institutions, & Roles

  • Sarah E. Falls, UNC School of the Arts, Librarian Lead Collection

  • Michelle L. Soler, UNC System, Project Manager

  • Enoch Park, UNC Charlotte, Instructional Designer

  • Harvey Long, NC A&T State University, Librarian

  • Melody Rood, UNC Greensboro, Librarian

  • Jacqueline Solis, UNC Chapel Hill, Librarian

  • Jeanne Hoover, East Carolina University, Librarian

  • William Cross, NC State University, Librarian Lead Webinars


The North Carolina General Assembly has invested $5 million in non-recurring funding for the UNC System to enhance the student experience in digital learning this summer and fall. A portion of these funds will support online course enhancements.

Massive System-wide efforts moved more than 50,000 face-to-face courses online in a matter of weeks during the spring semester of 2020. Now that the initial emergency is behind us, we can use this program to help faculty—and students—in courses across the state this fall and into the future.

The Digital Course Enhancements program brought together teams of faculty and instructional designers from across the UNC System to consider how to build and organize a set of materials that add value to any of ten high-enrollment, introductory online courses: Calculus 1, Introductory Statistics, Biology 1, Chemistry I & II, Anatomy & Physiology 1, Organic Chemistry 1, Accounting 1, Microeconomics, and Macroeconomics.

Each set of digital course enhancements includes student learning outcomes for the course and a set of learning modules aligned with those outcomes. The modules contain instructional materials, resources, and assessments further aligned with the outcomes. In addition to the information you find here in the Faculty Resource Guide, you will find additional explanations and suggestions within individual modules and alongside specific artifacts.

Faculty who use these digital course enhancements are not obligated in any way to use the complete set; you can and should select those modules that work for your course and your context.

Read on for specific information about the digital course enhancements for Open Educational Resources and here’s to an outstanding semester ahead!

Overview of Digital Course Enhancements for OER Implementation Collection

The OER Implementation Collection is a companion to the UNC Digital Course Enhancement Collections that gathers reliable open resources and provides videos of presentations from authoritative speakers to answer the most frequent questions faculty ask about how and why to use OER in their courses. The OER Implementation Collection will provide a guide to finding and using OER for faculty and instructors who are interested in working with the UNC digital course enhancement collections and using other open educational resources in their teaching.

Users of the OER Implementation collection will be provided information and resources that align with the course learning objectives. Each module was developed to introduce and build upon key components in understanding Open Educational Resources. In the first module, learners will be introduced to the conceptual framework and background of Open Educational Resources, and OER as an educational movement. This includes information on the history of OER, how to identify OER, and how open educational resources are connected to other Open concepts. The second module covers how OER benefits both students and faculty by looking at topics such as reduced textbook costs, efficacy, accessibility, equity and inclusion, student success, customization, and flexibility. In the third module, users will learn where to look to identify major OER repositories and identify sets of OER useful for instruction. The fourth module introduces elements of evaluating OER and how to utilize relevant rubrics. Information on adapting existing OER and localization can be found in the fifth module. Finally, the sixth module serves as an introduction to the creation of Open Educational Resources.

OER Fridays! UNC System OER Collections Webinar Series

OER Fridays! is a collection of 8 high-quality supplemental webinars. Each webinar features leading experts in OER education and open pedagogy, and topics range from finding and evaluating OER tools to using OER to build more inclusive materials.

Learning Outcomes for the Course

The learning outcomes were determined by integrating the shared knowledge of Open Educational Resources amongst the eight team members based on their experiences with OER education, service, and advocacy at their individual institutions.

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

  1. Understand what Open Educational Resources are

  2. Describe how OER benefit students and faculty

  3. Find OER that are relevant for their courses

  4. Determine the quality and value of OER that they find

  5. Adapt existing OER to fit their courses

  6. Learn how to create their own OER

Organization and Alignment of the Course

The six module topics were decided based on the most commonly asked questions received by OER educators within the team. The learning objectives listed above are aligned with each module and satisfies the presented questions (the module titles). The module learning objectives were identified as key components of each course objective and include instructional materials and resources, activities, assessment, and deliverables to meet those goals. The OER Implementation Collection topics and learning objectives are as below.

Course Learning Objectives (CLOs) and Module Learning Objectives (MLOs) with associated questions for section titles:


  1. What are Open Educational Resources?

Understand the background and history of OER, and learn to identify an open educational resource.

MLO 1.1. Understand the conceptual framework, background, and OER as an educational movement

MLO 1.2. Learn about the Open movements: history, context, and related movements

MLO 1.3. Understand the 5Rs and the criteria of OER

MLO 1.4. Identify examples of OER and understand what it is and is not

2. Why should I consider using OER?

Describe ways that OER benefit students and faculty.

MLO 2.1 Understand the benefits of user OER from a student-centered perspective

a. Textbook costs

b. Efficacy

c. Accessibility

d. Equity & Inclusion

e. Student Success (access from day 1)

MLO 2.2 Understand how OER benefit faculty

a. Quality

b. Customization (adaption)

c. Fits teaching style & needs

d. Flexibility

e. Better understanding of student access levels

MLO 2.3 Understand how Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility overlap with Open Educational Resources

3. Where can I find high-quality OER?

Find OER that are relevant for your teaching.

MLO 3.1 Find major OER repositories

MLO 3.2 Identify sets of OER that would be useful for courses you teach

4. How can I determine the quality and value of OER?

Determine quality and value of OER that you locate.

MLO 4.1 Identify perspectives on evaluating and defining ‘quality’ as it relates to course material

MLO 4.2 Utilize relevant rubrics for evaluating OER

5. How can I adapt existing OER to work better?

Adapt existing OER to better suit your specific needs.

MLO 5.1 Adapt existing OER to meet the needs of your course.

MLO 5.2 Adapt course design to integrate OER effectively.

6. How can I create OER of my own?

Create new OER for your courses.

MLO 6.1: Find collaborators or a team to work with.

MLO 6.2: Create derivative works.

MLO 6.3: Create Original works

MLO 6.4: Choose appropriate license for derivative/ original works.

MLO 6.5: Locate the appropriate OER repository and upload your contributions.


Topics and Learning Objectives in Table format is also available at this link.

Suggestions for Use

This collection can be used by both novice and experienced faculty. Each module builds upon the previous information before it, however, each section can stand on its own.

Companion to the Digital Course Enhancement Collection

The OER Implementation Collection can help faculty understand how to utilize the open content within the Course Collection Libraries to best fit instructional needs.

Open Educational Resources Training

This collection is also a great tool for basic OER training for faculty, librarians, and other users interested in the Open Movement.

Additional Resources

The resources below are the Open Fridays OER Webinars that make up this course collection in conjunction with the OER Implementation Collection modules. Additional resources and attributions can be found on the module pages.








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