Introduction to OER

Vision and Rationale      |      What is OER?      |      OER Initiatives at CCs

Vision and Rationale
The open source movement in computer software has run parallel to the digital revolution in the past 20 years. The grass roots development of software where the source code is available to all has been one of the social phenomena that has kept the Internet relatively free from commercial enterprise. Some estimate that this saves consumers $60 billion a year. In the spirit of public collaboration, users improve upon and redesign already existing computer programs or Web sites. These collaborators have laid the groundwork for educators to follow their model to create free instructional content for students.

The new Open Educational Resources movement creates a way for us to make textbook affordable to LBCC students, but it also entails many more benefits for students as well at the global community.

An added benefit for LBCC is that faculty can share original instructional material, content and class activities within the college community to create a knowledge base of resources that can be used by all faculty members.

Recent Open Educational Resources (OER) efforts encourage educators to share knowledge in ways that benefit teachers and students, making their learning and teaching experience more accessible and meaningful. Use of open textbooks result in reduced educational cost for students. Open courseware encourages concerted work by faculty to create content processors and content application opportunities to support meaningful student learning content across the curriculum.

Learn how you can use OER in your class, and how you can join and contribute to the global OER culture.

Open Educational Resources: What is OER?
"In a brave new world of learning, OER content is made free to use or share, and in some cases, to change and share again, made possible through licensing, so that both teachers and learners can share what they know." (from OER Commons)

• Learning Content: Full courses, courseware, content modules, learning objects, collections and journals.
• Tools: Software to support the development, use, re-use and delivery of learning content including searching and organization of content, content and learning management systems, content development tools, and on-line learning communities.
• Implementation Resources: Intellectual property licenses to promote open publishing of materials, design principles of best practice, and localization of content.” (from Wikipedia).

OER Initiatives at Community Colleges:

References:

Rothwell, Richard (2008-08-05). "Creating wealth with free software". Free Software Magazine. http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/community_posts/creating_wealth_free_software. Retrieved on 2008-09-08.

Standish Newsroom - Open Source. Press release. 2008-04-16. http://standishgroup.com/newsroom/open_source.php. Retrieved on 2008-09-08.