In any educational setting, we want students to have the best possible resources and information in their hands. Unfortunately, this is not always feasible due to funding, access, availability of materials, or other reasons. We hope this handbook can serve as a resource for faculty, teachers, librarians, and others who are interested in exploring free and customizable resources for students.
Open Educational Resources (OER) are materials that are free for users while also incorporating an open license that legally allows for adapting, remixing, or sharing (SPARC, n.d,). OER may include textbooks, videos, modules, activities, and other learning materials. To be defined as an OER, a work must meet the requirement of the five R’s : Reuse, Revise, Remix, Redistribute, and Retain (Wiley, n.d).
Usage of OER has been growing over the last few years due to the increasing costs of higher education and, in particular, of textbooks. From 2006-2016, textbook costs have increased by 87% which was three times the rate of inflation during the same time period (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016). While cost is certainly a factor in moving towards free learning materials, it is not the only reason. Most textbooks are developed by publishers to be used for classes around the world. General textbooks may not fit well with the topics covered in class or represent local culture. OER allows educators to edit, remix, adapt, and share versions of materials that fit best with their classes (SPARC, n.d.). For example, a teacher may combine chapters from multiple open textbooks to create a new textbook that covers all the relevant topics for the class. This gives educators the opportunity to customize in a way unavailable with many commercial textbooks.
Quotable Quotes
From the vision statement of the Open Education Consortium (n.d.):
“We envision a world where everyone, everywhere has access to the high-quality education and training they desire; where education is seen as an essential, shared, and collaborative social good.”
Did you know?
Congress signed into law a 5 million dollar Open Textbook Grant program on March 23, 2018. This funding provides competitive grants for institutions to create free and affordable textbooks that have an open license to provide cost savings to students as well as improve instruction and learning outcomes (SPARC, 2018).
Additional Resources
ADA based lawsuits and resolutions for technology access issues in higher education
http://www.washington.edu/accessibility/requirements/accessibility-cases-and-settlement-agreements/
The intersection of accessibility and OER
http://openoregon.org/the-intersection-of-accessibility-and-open-educational-resources/
Textbook Initiative Resources: OER and ADA Compliance
https://libguides.sheridan.edu/c.php?g=651137&p=4572874
OER and Accessibility: Building a Community of Experts and a Collection of Exposure
References
1.Bureau of Labor Statistics (2016). College tuition and fees increase 63 percent since January 2006 on the Internet. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2016/college-tuition-and-fees-increase-63-percent-since-january-2006.htm.
2. Open Education Consortium. (n.d.). The Open education consortium. Retrieved from https://www.oeconsortium.org/about-oec/.
3. SPARC (n.d.). Open education. Retrieved from https://sparcopen.org/open-education/.
4. SPARC. (2018). $5 million open textbook pilot grant program. Retrieved from https://sparcopen.org/our-work/open-textbooks-fy18/.
5. Wiley, D. (n.d.). Defining the “open” in open content and open educational resources. Retrieved from http://opencontent.org/definition/.
