Creative Commons, OERs and Beyond

The concept of open educational resources (OER) is becoming increasingly prominent in education. However, research circles around defining OER, content and forms of OER, technological features of OER, and the importance of the issue or lack thereof. Vital aspects such as the notion of the adoption of OER by educational practitioners remain underdeveloped. In order to shed light on the question of how to adopt OER in education, the article presents findings of a meta-study which critically reviewed 25 state-funded OER projects located in Germany. All projects aimed to anchor OER across educational areas, such as school, higher, continuing, and vocational education. The meta-analysis disclosed a mixed bag of results. Although interest and willingness to deal with OER can be confirmed, reservation is rooted in the complexity of the topic and especially the legal concerns. However, the findings demonstrate that OER can by no means be ignored in the context of teaching and learning in a digital world. Integrating OER as an aspect of existing educational training should, therefore, be encouraged. Concerning future design recommendations, to conflate OER with other pressing issues and to simultaneously emphasise its added value explicitly is a promising approach. Moreover, establishing central contact points in educational institutions to accompany and monitor actors on their path to OER appears to be necessary. Notwithstanding the concrete measures, any strategy must operate persistently at both levels, institutional and practical, embracing all relevant stakeholders.

This research focuses on the performance (as measured by exam grades) of students in a section of Accounting Principles taught face to face (traditional delivery) versus one section of the same class taught in an online format versus two sections of the same course taught in a hybrid format. The distinction of this research is that the students in the hybrid sections did all their work (including online exams) in My Accounting Lab the same as students in the online class. The only difference is that the hybrid students were able to meet with the instructor twice a week during the semester to ask questions about their My Accounting Lab assignments and benefit from having some of the assignments explained in detail. The students in the online section could only submit questions electronically through a My Accounting Lab link or through university email. The face-to-face (traditional delivery) class did homework and chapter multiple-choice quizzes on My Accounting Lab but took all their exams in class and had the opportunity to see and hear instructor lectures on each of the covered topics.

There is a growing trend in higher education to explore the various benefits of Open Educational Resources. This applies not only to the cost benefits, but also to potential pedagogical benefits as well. This study explores the process of developing and implementing an Open Educational Resource for an undergraduate course and experimenting with OER-enabled pedagogy. Interview data provide an account of this process, outlining challenges and highlighting insights, which might prove useful for other professionals contemplating the move toward developing Open Educational Resources. Interview data are also organized using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology constructs pertaining to attitude, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, technology self-efficacy, and facilitating conditions. A qualitative interpretive approach was then used to analyze the data. Analysis indicates that most of the constructs can strongly influence faculty to adopt Open Educational Resources but that "social influence" has no effect on adoption. Findings also include reflections on OER-enabled pedagogy as it was applied in the course. These findings indicate that OER-enabled pedagogy has the potential for increasing student engagement, though this potential has not yet been realized. Finally, findings provide an outline of recommendations that might guide others when considering developing and implementing Open Educational Resources.

This research investigates the factors that impact students' perceptions of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education. This study examines the factors that impact the student perception of these materials to add to the pedagogical discussion surrounding the increased use of OER resources as a method of improving student access to education. This study looked at factors regarding student, course and university characteristics. The results suggest that feelings of connectivity to the course, a preference for lower costs of education, likelihood to rate faculty members higher, and preferences for online courses contribute to positive student perceptions of open educational course materials, however factors such as income or perceptions of monetary benefit show little effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cost of textbooks has continued to increase with significant financial effects on students in higher education. Although many faculty express a desire and willingness to adopt and create open textbooks (and OER generally), few actually do. To better understand this gap between attitudes and practices, this phenomenological study builds upon the findings of a survey of faculty members at a large, nationally-ranked, high-research-activity university in the U.S. and uses in-depth interviews to understand faculty members' lived experiences with OER adoption and creation. Results indicated that though faculty might be motivated to use and create OER to reduce cost and improve pedagogy, they are regularly stymied by quality considerations, copyright fears, technical difficulties, and sustainability concerns. We explore each of these issues in some depth and provide discussion and suggestions on how similar institutions (e.g., high-research-activity) should respond to help support OER adoption and creation.

The article discusses the increasing adoption of textbooks licensed under Creative Commons (CC) in the U.S. CC global learning director Cable Green explains that a state could make a one-time investment of 100 million U.S. dollars to provide such textbooks, which would be in digital format, but can be downloaded for printing and can be updated. This system is also called open education resources (OER). The system's role in education reform and implications for intellectual property are tackled.

Open educational resources have become a strategic source of a high degree of importance and this explains the reason for the acceleration of countries to join the use of them, but unfortunately, the results of a survey study conducted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on eight experts in e-learning showed a gap that hinders integration in the use of open educational resources among educational institutions, especially at the general and higher education. Accordingly, the present study aimed to review the most prominent Open Educational Resources (OER) platforms in Saudi Arabia and identify the reality of cooperation and the best means of integration between higher and general education institutions from the perspective of specialists and concerned bodies. It adopted the analytical survey (descriptive) method. It covered a population of specialists and concerned bodies in e-learning from higher and general education institutions. The study applied a questionnaire to a sample of (144) participants from higher education institutions and (327) participants from general education institutions. Finally, it concluded results, made recommendations and suggested further studies.

The article offers information on the open access publishing forum, which is an online availability of scholarly articles, without any cost and easy availability. Topics discussed include application of open access in journals including "Optometry & Visual Performance," "Optometric Education" and "Journal of Behavioral Optometry," information on copyright licenses issued by the non-governmental organization Creative Commons, and comparison of open access versus traditional publications.

The article offers information on open educational resources (OER). It mentions that OER include electronic learning and teaching materials. It informs that these materials have identifiable licensing arrangements which make it easier to know how one can use them in one's own teaching. OER offer some collections related to medicine and health care education to clinical teachers. The article informs that licensing of OER is provided by the organization Creative Commons (CC).

Given the upsurge of textbook costs, college students increasingly expect universities and instructors to offer alternatives to traditional textbooks. One textbook alternative is using open educational resources (OER). While OER unquestionably save students money, the question remains whether the adoption of OER (instructional materials) is aligned with open pedagogy (methods). This study investigated 46 undergraduate students' perceptions of using only OER in an introductory course in a large American public university. As reported by study participants, advantages of using OER include textbook cost savings, access to dynamic and plentiful OER materials, that OER enabling mobile learning, and that OER foster the development of self-directed skills and copyright guidelines. Challenges reported include lacking a tactile sense with OER, slow Internet connections, unclear instruction and guidance, and insufficient self-regulation skills. Course design and implementation considerations were discussed.

This study investigated Undergraduates' Attitude towards the utilization of OER [Open Educational Resources] among Undergraduates and the influence of gender and area of specialization on their attitude towards the use. The study adopted a descriptive method of the quantitative research. 3 research questions were developed and answered. 398 respondents were randomly sampled from 3 purposively selected area of specializations. Frequency counts, percentage, rank order and mean were used to answer research questions 1 to 3. The findings of the study were: Undergraduates have a positive attitude towards utilization of OER for learning; There was difference between male and female undergraduates' attitude towards the utilization of OER for learning in favor of male undergraduates; and There were no significance differences among undergraduates based on Area of Specialization. The study concluded that students have a positive attitude towards use of OER for learning. The research recommends that institutions should endeavor to create their own OERs where students can access anytime and anywhere.

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Answers to common questions about OERs from the University of Minnesota

Directions for searching for OERs on various platforms

Debunking the top myths about OER in North American higher education

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Open Washington - resources for finding OERs

The OER World Map collects data related to Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Education as described in the Cape Town Declaration and the 2012 OER Paris Declaration. Please add only related data. If not obvious, please outline the reference to OER in the description field.

The Registry of Open Access Repository Mandates and Policies (ROARMAP) is a searchable international registry charting the growth of open access mandates and policies adopted by universities, research institutions and research funders that require or request their researchers to provide open access to their peer-reviewed research article output by depositing it in an open access repository.