OER Adoption Tools and Resources
Below are some resources for adapting, creating, and sharing your own OER:
*note: this was reused and adapted from Kirkwood Community College Library's guide on open textbooks
- Modifying an Open Textbook Details 6 basic steps to modifying and hosting an existing open textbook or other OER.
- OpenStax CNX: Localization and OER "In the context of OER, localization refers to the process of taking educational resources developed for one context and adapting them for other contexts. These contexts can, for example, be geographical, pedagogical, political, or technical. The practice of localization encompasses more than the translation of materials into a local language or swapping a photo to reflect a culture. Localization is at the heart of the OER process—it exemplifies diversity, openness, and reusability."
Open Textbook Adoption Worksheet
- Open Textbook Adoption Worksheet (Community College Consortium) Created by Dr. Judy Baker, Director of the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources, this resource simplifies the process of finding and adopting an open textbook.
If you have found OER to adapt or remix, you should first check to see if there are any built-in authoring tools available from the repository where you found the OER. Below are tutorials of authoring tools in various OER repositories.
- OER Common Open AuthorIf the OER were 1) originally composed by Open Author in OER Common, and 2) have been given use licenses that allow for their editing and remixing, you may use the "remix this resource" option to copy and edit an Open Author resource.
Below are some possible free tools you could use to create/adapt OER:
Source: OER Authoring Tools guide, created by Sarah Morehouse is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Documents
Images
Audio
Video
eBook Publishing
Sharing Existing Learning Objects
You probably have already created potential OER and just haven't thought about them as resources you might be able to share! OER take the shape of different resources, including (but not limited to):
- Syllabi and courses created (for example, if you created a class on WWI Literature, it might be useful for others to see your assigned readings and activities)
- Videos/ tutorials on a specific topic
- Worksheets
- Group activities
- Writing prompts
- Tests, quizzes, and other assessments
- Lesson plans
- Research assignments and activities
If you'd like to share one of your learning objects as an OER, think about the following:
- Decide where they might go (general or disciplinary repository)
- Find out what the requirements are for them to go there. Do they need to be in a specific format? What metadata entry is required?
- Rank/ evaluate your OER. What level is it intended for? What’s the language use (very technical or introductory)? Can you add instructions/ tips on how you used it?
- Craft metadata for the object. What terms can you use to make your OER more discoverable?
Think also about Licensing!
Look at the CC website to decide what’s right for you. What are your intentions for the object? If you are remixing several OER which were published under different licenses, use the Creative Commons License Compatibility Chart to help you determine whether there will be compatibility issues. Refer also to CC attribution guide to write appropriate citations for the resources you used. The suggested citation format is: [Title] by [Author], used under [CC BY Licence]
OER = Free + 5 Rs
OER are learning and teaching materials that are freely and openly available.
The terms "open content" and "open educational resources" describe any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is described by other terms like "open source") that is either (1) in the public domain or (2) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities: (Source:Open Content)
Visualization by Univeristy of Ottawa, CC-By
Illustration based on: D. Wiley, “Defining the ‘Open’ in Open Content and Open Educational Resources,” CC BY 4.0. Definitions adapted from: SUNY OER Services, “5Rs of OER” [Infographic], CC BY 4.0.