OER supports Instructors and enables students

Good afternoon everyone,

The semester started this week, and I'm teaching a new class this year. So I'm still trying to learn before I teach. Not that it's an excuse, but it's a good reason why I haven't taken the time to get back to OER commons.

I too was fortunate to participate in one of the cohorts. I find that adult educators love to share their way of teaching, and appreciate getting feedback. I see OER Commons as a wonderful platform to find last minute lessons/videos/games, that an instructor may use in class. I also heard from students that they appreciated being able to practice some of the activities we used in class, later at home.

Amanda and Marcela, Thanks for helping us keep up with OER Commons.

Orly

Comments

Hi Orly and others!

You bring up a great point that was mentioned in the OER video link I shared to start this discussion - students appreciate being able to practice some classroom activities at home. Of course, this is possible without OER, but it is easier to do with linked resources that are easily accessible by all.  After reading your post, I thought about how students could become more involved.  Since everyone is able to evaluate OER on OER Commons, what do you think about students providing their own evaluation and/or comments about the resource?  I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts about this. 

Amanda

Hi Amanda, Orly and others!

I like the idea of getting student evaluations. Students need to be more reflective of their own learning anyway, so this would be a good way to do it.  They may even offer suggestions on how to remix it for future use or expand  on it.   I got a lot of positive feedback from my students when I used the OERs that I evaluated and published as part of the OER User Group Cohort, but it was mostly just verbal feedback after the class sessions.

  While it can be challenging and time-consuming to find OERs to use in class, student satisfaction was a great motivator for me. I agree with Orly that students like having online materials that they can access outside of class when they have time and in order to get more practice on a topic covered in class, OERs are great resources for that too.  As I learn  Spanish, I'm constantly scouring the internet for such resources!  

Building up repositories of quality materials for for ESOL learners of all levels is so important.  It can save time when we find something that we just need to tweak to meet our students' needs and I found it sparked my own creativity to remix or create something based on ideas that I found.  

Leann

I also think that the idea of students providing their own evaluations and comments is a great one! I regularly ask my students to suggest and evaluate materials that we use, and, as I mentioned in a previous post, the students informed the evaluations that I've done on OER Commons, but why shouldn't they evaluate and comment directly? I'm all for it!

Dorothy