OER in Higher Education

OER can encompass a variety of teaching and learning materials. Types of OER include (but are not limited to) syllabi, lesson plans, learning modules, lab experiments, simulations, course videos, discussion prompts, assignments, assessments, library guides, and course design templates.

Listed below are a few of the ways in which faculty, students, librarians, and instructional designers may use or support the adoption of open educational resources.

Faculty

Many faculty already use OER — examples include showing an openly licensed course video or using curricular material created and shared by others. Open licensing allows faculty to create and share syllabi, lesson plans, and even entire textbooks for their courses. Further, OER provides opportunities for faculty in different institutions around the world to collaborate and to build off of each others' work.

Students

Students can play a significant role in creating and improving OER ─ from simple assignments to full textbooks. One example from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire is The Open Anthology of Early American Literature. This anthology was created by students working together to find public-domain materials, write topic introductions, craft discussion forum prompts, and create assignments to go along with the materials to create a full OER textbook.

Librarians

Librarians play a key role in OER initiatives by advocating, developing, exploring, and managing OER. Along with helping faculty find existing OER, librarians can often explain copyright concepts and provide guidance in adaptation and creation of OER.

Instructional Designers

Instructional Designers can work with faculty to integrate OER into courses; they can also help to share and publish course design templates as OER. Many instructional designers and technologists work with librarians and IT services to help integrate OER into learning management systems such as Blackboard, Canvas, Brightspace, Moodle, etc.

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