OERTX
- OERTXOERTX Repository is a public digital library of open educational resources for higher education created by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Search collections or create and collaborate to improve instruction.
OER Video
- University VideosThis Digital Library portal contains the metadata of the YouTube Channels of the world's Top Universities.
- Moving Image ArchiveA large collection of movies, films and videos that are all free to use.
- TED Ed: Lessons Worth SharingBuild a lesson around any TED-Ed Original, TED Talk or YouTube video.
Creative Commons Music
- ccMixterAn entire site of music licensed under Creative Commons.
Texas Learn OER
- Texas Learn OERFrom Austin Community College, this is a training course of 10 modules to learn about what, why and how for using OER.
Welcome to the UHV OER Initiative
"OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge." [1]
The Open Education movement is built around the 5Rs of Open [2]
- Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content
- Reuse – the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
- Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
- Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
- Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)
Introduction to Open Educational Resources
What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?
OERs are educational materials that are specifically designed by their creator/s to be openly available, and are often licensed to be re-used, re-mixed, and re-distributed. Open is not just about low cost (though that is an important benefit of using OER) but about the ability to take what others have created, customize it for your specific educational needs, and then share your creation with others.
OERs can come in a variety of forms:
- Primary sources - Images, video, and sound recordings. Some sources are in the public domain, while others have been licensed as open by their creators. In addition, many texts that are in the public domain are available online/electronically.
- Learning content - created content that ranges from individual lectures, animations, and assessments to complete courses and textbooks.
Why OERs?
The open resource movement has been around for a while, starting with static learning objects (about 2000), and transitioning to OERs that allowed for revision and reuse. It is the ever increasing cost of textbooks and materials for students that is now pushing the OER movement forward. Textbooks and learning materials cost students approximately $1,100 per year. The College Board statistics say 800% since 1980. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 in 10 students didn't purchase a textbook because it was too expensive. Students often have to wait several weeks into a semester for financial aid in order to purchase textbooks, missing valuable lesson time. Through OERs the cost of student materials can be drastically reduced. OERs also give instructors the ability to customize the materials, creating the "perfect" textbook instead of being bound to traditional print resources.
Understanding OER video
Why Open Education Matters
Head of Public Services
Read More about OER
- Expanding Your Search StrategiesA handy guide from University of Alaska on search strategies for finding your OER
- UHV to participate in project aimed at providing free textbooks to studentsThe university is joining more than 60 other institutions this fall in the OpenStax network by participating in the 2021-2022 OpenStax Institutional Partner Program. The educational initiative, which was created by Rice University, partners with foundations, educational resource companies and other universities to provide students with high-quality openly licensed college textbooks that are free online and can be bought in print for a low price.
- A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption on the learning outcomes of post-secondary studentsThe study looks at a sample of more than 16,000 students across 10 institutions, and compares several measures of student academic success between those using open textbooks and those using traditional textbooks. The results show a clear trend that students who use open textbooks do as well or better than those who use traditional textbooks.
- Open Textbooks Could Help StudentsAs the price of college textbooks continues to increase, more students are opting to skip the books even if their grades suffer, a survey conducted by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group has found. In a report released on Monday, the group said open textbooks—written by faculty members, peer-reviewed, and available free online—could help make textbooks affordable again.
- The Cost and Quality of Open Textbooks:The Cost and Quality of Open Textbooks: Perceptions of community college faculty and students. by TJ Bliss, John Hilton, David Wiley and Kim Thanos.
- On Quality and OERBlogpost by David Wiley
- Report: Make Textbooks AffordableAs publishers keep costs high by pumping out new editions and selling books bundled with software, students are forced to forgo book purchases or otherwise undermine their academic progress.
- Adopting OERs is Better for Everyone InvolvedExcellent blog post summarizing the benefits for students, faculty and institutions
License
All original content on this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. All linked-to content adheres to its respective license.
