OER: Introduction

You are all invited to participate in and learn from an exciting conversation about Open Educational Resources that will take place from May 12^th – May 16^th here on LINCS. The conversation will be facilitated by Dahlia Shaewitz, Delphinia Brown and Amanda Duffy from the American Institutes for Research. This conversation is a continuation of the work they have been doing on the Open Educational Resources to Increase Teaching and Learning of STEM Subjects in Adult Education Project. For more information about this project, please visit the project page.

During this five day discussion we will share important and relevant information about open educational resources (OER) in adult education. We will begin by defining what an OER is and how it may be valuable to enhance instruction and learning in adult education. During the week we will discuss incorporating OER in the classroom and how you can search for and select OER for your classroom. Towards the end of the week, you will have opportunities to apply your knowledge of OER in an activity called “Is it an OER or not?”. We will wrap up the week with a discussion on ways you can begin to move forward with including OER in your instruction. We welcome all of your questions and comments—please feel free to experiment with OER and bring your thoughts to this discussion.

This activity has now ended. Here is a message from our guest moderators:

Thank you for hosting us this past week as visiting moderators for the discussion about Open Educational Resources (OER). We are hopeful that as teachers wrap up their classes and have more time to explore new materials, they will return to this discussion. If questions arise in your online discussions, please share our LINCS project page (https://lincs.ed.gov/programs/oerstem) with community members. On that page, teachers will find examples of OER and how they are used through our teacher spotlight. We would also like to offer ourselves as resources to you in the event that a question about OER is asked within your community and you are unsure of the answer.

Dahlia, Delphinia, and Amanda

STEM Open Educational Resources (OERs) for Adult Education OERSTEM@air.org

OER FAQ: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_jAjlLOIZ_rLW10c1JCUEh2aFU/edit?pli=1

Comments

I am looking forward to this discussion because this project has been a great benefit to myself and my program as we look for new curriculum in both mathematics and science areas. I have personally reviewed 9 resources and have added 6 new OERs to the OER Commons page. Both my learners and I have enjoyed the science resources and I will continue to look for and evaluate resources for the collection as I utilize them in my classroom both face-to-face and online. I hope others in the field will be available to participate in this discussion!

Brooke Istas,
SME Math and Numeracy Community

Thank you, Susan. This sounds like a fantastic opportunity to learn more about an incredibly applicable subject. Correctional Educators are often required to use whatever (cheap and accessible) materials are to hand, and understanding exactly what Open Ed Resources can provide is an important skill. I look forward to the information and discussion.

-- Heather Erwin

Susan,

Thank you facilitating this discussion.

The timing is great as programs begin that transition from spring to summer and a review of the year's successes and challenges. The OER provides the staff with a new and maybe better opportunity to integrate different and alternative resources into the curricular offerings. One of the clear advantages is helping ensure that the learners are able to work on their skill and knowledge development on a 24/7 schedule that fits within their busy days.

Appreciatively,

Daryl

Reading and writing COP moderator

This will be an asynchronous ongoing discussion?

Not sure how this works.

Thanks

Lin Schroeder

CDP Science Teacher

Middletown Adult Education

Hello, Lin,

Yes, this will be an asynchronous ongoing discussion. It will last one week, and the AIR staff has devised a great agenda. There will be a pre-discussion activity, probably posted May 5th. Then each day (May 12-16) there will be a specific discussion topic with resources. Those daily topics/questions/resources will be posted the evening before. So, for example, under the discussion thread heading OER-Day One, topic/resources will be posted May 11th for discussion on May 12th. You will be hearing more from Amanda Duffy of AIR.

This is a good question! Thanks!

Susan

Hello Everyone,

My name is Delphinia Brown and I’m deputy director of the OER STEM project. I am very much looking forward to co-facilitating this discussion on OER with Susan and other project staff and sharing with you some of the wonderful resources we’ve developed for the OER STEM project.

I’m thrilled to see that so many of you are interested in talking about the benefits of OER for adult learners. I’m just as excited to be having this conversation and to help LINCS community members learn more about how teaching practice and student learning can be transformed with OER. We’ve had tremendous success with our OER User Groups who have collectively evaluated over 120 OER for adult education so, there’s much to discuss and many lessons to share!

I hope to hear more about your thoughts on how OER can enhance teaching in learning later this month. In the meanwhile, please do check out our project page for a brief overview of OER and the work we’ve been doing (and plan to do) to help adult educators integrate OER into instruction.

Stay well,

Delphinia

Hi all,

My name is Dahlia Shaewitz and I’m the project director for the Open Educational Resources to Increase Teaching and Learning of STEM Subjects in Adult Education, or OER STEM project for short. I also want to thank Susan for inspiring this great conversation to be held in just a couple weeks.

In addition to the benefits that OER can bring to instruction and learning for students, OER also offer an opportunity to expand professional development for adult educators. We will talk more about that during the planned discussion. I also want to emphasize that the value of OER is not just what we do with a particular resource, the value lies in yet another opportunity in which adult educators and learners can add their voice to the larger education conversation around teaching and learning.

I look forward to all the ideas and suggestions that you share with us, as we share what we have learned thanks to an amazing group of adult educators who have contributed immensely to our project.

Very best, Dahlia

Hello Everyone!

My name is Amanda Duffy and I had the great pleasure of working closely with two teacher User Groups for the OER STEM Project. Through this process teachers’ understanding and appreciation for OER grew, especially when they witnessed the difference in their students’ engagement and understanding of materials.

I’m looking forward to sharing lessons learned and tips with you so you can deepen your understanding of OER, and begin to use and create them for your adult learners. All of us are excited to be a part of this conversation and believe in the value of OER for enhancing teaching and learning in adult education. Your questions, resources, and thoughts will enrich this conversation, so please share them all throughout the week!

Amanda

Answers to the following questions will be provided all week, so please join us for each day’s discussions about OER to learn more. We encourage you to write down your responses and check back to review your understanding as each topic is discussed.

1. Open Educational Resources (OER) are

a) Any free resource

b) PDF resources that can be used and shared, but not modified

c) Materials with specific copyright licenses that allow users to modify resources

d) None of the above

2. Name at least two values of using OER in adult education

3. Which of the following is an appropriate place in a lesson to use OER?

a) Guided practice

b) Assessment

c) Modeling

d) Warm-up activities

e) All of the above

4. Name at least two sources for finding OER

5. True or False: There is no effective way to search for OER online. Users must look through every option to determine openness.

6. In order to determine if a resource is an OER, users should

a) Check for Creative Commons symbols

b) Check the Terms of Use

c) Contact the author directly

d) A and B only

e) B and C only

f) A, B, and C

7. True or False: OER are great, but they’re not for my classroom.

The Day 1 discussion is up and ready for your input, so please join us for today's discussion about OERs to learn more. We encourage you to write down your responses and check back to review your understanding as each topic is discussed.