Design Practice: OER Exercise

Pause.png Before we move on ...

As we have discovered, there are varying degrees of “open” when discussing OERs, from just freely available to fully adaptable. Depending on the CC license conditions, you can only mix certain types of CC materials together, and may also be limited in your choice of licenses available for content you adapt. OER repositories have a rich selection of OERs available under a variety of CC licenses and aligning to various standards, subjects, and educational levels. Let's now take a moment in this two-part exercise to find and evaluate OER that you could incorporate within your lesson.

Exercise.pngExercise Part 1: Your Turn to Find OER

It is now your turn to find OER. The purpose of this practice activity is to encourage you to examine already available OER and determine whether or not you need to build your lesson from the ground up, or if there are openly licensed materials that can be adapted or remixed.

Please take a some time to explore several of the Open Educational Resource (OER) repositories shared previously. Take note of how you are able to search the materials. Examine what information is available in the resources for instructors, students, and instructional designers (e.g., time allotment, materials needed, prior learning requirements, learning objectives, standards, etc.). Identify the target audience for the resources you find. Also examine the copyright licenses that these materials have. If you were to use any of these resources, what restrictions apply?

Now that you have had a chance to think about your lesson plan - the learning goal(s), the learner profile, the topic(s), delivery mode, types of learning materials - you can determine if open educational resources that suit this need already exist. Maybe there is a lesson that comes close to filling your need, but is either targeted at the wrong learner profile, or missing assessments or other support materials. This is where CC licenses and ability to repurpose OERs really shines.

You’ve likely heard the question, “Why reinvent the wheel?" If something already exists that fits your purpose, or almost fits your purpose, consider the question, “what is the benefit of creating this from scratch?” Because every learning context is unique, you may find materials that is close to what you require for your lesson plan, but often there is value in updating or adapting the material to fit your desired goals specifically.

Exercise.pngExercise Part 2: Your Turn to Evaluate OER

Now that you have found OER, let's take a moment to evaluate the resources you have found:

  1. Using the OER evaluation rubric (Links to an external site.) review the OER materials you found, and identify where they meet and exceed your requirements, and where they would need extra development. Make sure that if you plan to include OERs that you keep careful track of the attribution information.
  2. Based on the OER you have found, consider whether you will remix existing OER for your final project, adapt existing materials, develop materials from scratch, or a combination thereof.