Using and Creating Open Educational Resources (OERs)

• POCKET team: Dave O’Hare, Sarah Malone and Sarah Darley

www.derby.ac.uk/pocket • Sarah Darley, POCKET Learning Technologist

s.darley@derby.ac.uk

Workshop objectives

This workshop aims to provide University staff with an understanding of:

 • What open educational resources are• How they can be used in courses and as study

aids for students• Where they can be found online• How staff can create their own open educational

resources

What are Open Educational Resources (OERs)?

• “OER are teaching, learning and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others”. (The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation) http://www.hewlett.org/Programs/Education/OER

• Covers several different types of resources: – learning content (courses, learning objects)– tools (software)– intellectual property licenses

http

://c

reat

ivec

omm

ons.

org/

Ask the audience

• How many people are familiar with OERs?• Does anyone use OERs?• Has anyone created an OER?

Why give materials away for free?

Why give materials away for free?

• Sharing knowledge• Maximise taxpayers’ money• Reduced cost of content development by sharing

and reusing• Attracts new students

Benefits to users

• Increased access to educational resources• Counter the rising costs of higher education by

reducing the investment required for the development of educational resources and content

• Allows others to adapt educational materials to their needs

Benefits to creators

• Increased status and visibility• Increased demand for their services and products• 'What you give, you receive back improved.’

Richard Wyles, New Zealand OER Project case study (2007)

• Sharing and reusing can cut the costs for content development, making better use of available resources.

• Creation of more flexible materials

Examples of OERs: MIT

http

://o

cw.m

it.ed

u/

OpenLearn (The Open University)

http

://o

penl

earn

.ope

n.ac

.uk/

The LabSpace

http

://la

bsp

ace

.op

en.a

c.uk

OpenLearn: POCKET units

International Economic Law

International Economic Law

Business and Sustainability

Business and Sustainability

Creating Open Content for POCKET

Considerations• All units had to be independent and stand alone• Language needs to be suitable to the open

learning environment• Activities should include some kind of feedback• Copyright considerations• Accessibility issues

Other resources: Images

http://commons.wikimedia.org/

http://www.flickr.com/

iTunes U

http://www.apple.com/education/itunesu_mobilelearning/landing.html

Activity

• Think about how you might incorporate OERs into one of your modules

OR• Think about how you might develop an OER from

your existing material

• How might this enhance your material?• What support might you need to achieve this?

Thanks for listening!

• See separate sheet for useful links• Evaluation form• POCKET website: www.derby.ac.uk/pocket • POCKET materials:

http://labspace.open.ac.uk/tag/index.php?id=7791• Presentation slides available from:

http://www.slideshare.net/sdarley