Distinguishing Between OER and All that Other Stuff on the Internet

What Isn't OER

So, like, obviously, the first place to start is your preferred search engine. We're not sure that this needs a walkthrough, but here we go anyway. If you just open up a new tab in your browser (or, if that doesn't make sense, just click the internet button again), and do a search for "OER," chances are that you'll find OER Commons Links to an external site. among the first few hits. If it doesn't show up, what search engine are you using, anyway? Whatever. The link is above. Or here Links to an external site., if "above" is too ambiguous (which it might be, and no offense intended).

There are any number of other sites that you can visit to access OER (consult the "Recommended Additional Resources" page for some links), and for specific disciplines and courses you may find all kinds of helpful options. Those blessed with composition and rhetoric courses, however, may find that while k-12 English may be ready for the revolution, college-level first-year composition is fatally behind the times.

"But when I google 'thesis statement exercises,' I get lots of results!" some may cry. True, many resources of varying quality appear as if from nowhere, but can we use them?

Byte: The availability of something online, though ostensibly (and perhaps truly) intended for open use, does not necessarily make the resource legitimately open for use.

As we'll find in the next module, a digital resource must be explicitly licensed for use; otherwise, even if the author intended for free access and modification, anyone doing so would be violating copyright. Yikes, right?

What Is OER

But before we navigate those waters, let's identify some of the most common open resources for education. There are a number of open-resource collections online, providing access to countless free, modifiable materials, ranging from syllabi and handouts and small group activities to whole textbooks and even entire courses. These collections are easy to locate online with a basic search, but a (nowhere near comprehensive) list of this is available later at Recommended Additional Resources. For those seeking information, there are also wikis, which are aggregations of user-generated content. The most obvious example is Wikipedia Links to an external site., of course, but for education and the open resource movement, Wikieducator Links to an external site. is a great place to start. Another kind of free resource that is especially nice for those of us in the field of English composition, rhetoric, or literature, are libraries of public domain works, such as Project Gutenberg Links to an external site. or Wikisource Links to an external site.. Finally, there are MOOCs. This unfortunate acronym (please do not confuse with "mook"), stands for "Massive Open Online Course." You should already know a little about these puppies, since you're taking one right now. Some institutions, most notably MIT, have begun to publish a number of courses online that are freely accessible, though not necessarily "open" because they require the purchase of a textbook. No credit is awarded for successful completion of these courses for students not enrolled in the university, but learning is still possible and some institutions are experimenting with ways to offer some sort of certification that the course had been completed Links to an external site..

Pretty much whatever you might need as an educator may be available online with a sufficient sharing license, whether you are well-seasoned and just looking for something a little better in terms of a handout about commas or an adjunct professor teaching your first composition course in need of some examples of how to structure your course. You just need to know where to look.

First, though, we have to test our ability to distinguish between stuff you can look at online and stuff that you can comfortably use for yourself.