Open Educational Resources: A Source of Thrills and Chills

By Jani JamesOctober 31, 2013

OER - Thrills and Chills by Jani James, 10/31/13. This work is licensed under: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Thrill One

• There are tons of fascinating materials – photos, images, texts, courses, videos and other materials that may be used in an educational resource of your own construction – for free!

• Check out this beautiful picture of Space Shuttle Endeavor in the public domain because pictures from NASA are generally not copyrighted.

• How cool is that?????OER

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OER - Thrills and Chills by Jani James, 10/31/13. This work is licensed under: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Thrill Two

• Not only are a plethora of resources free to YOU, but they can be free to your users, especially students.

• Teachers at community colleges and community based organizations are especially thrilled about having free resources so that each student can have their own “text” at $0 cost.

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OER - Thrills and Chills by Jani James, 10/31/13. This work is licensed under: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Thrill Three

• Printed books and materials get out of date, but if you have access to OER, you have access to updated materials as often as you want, particularly if you use them in a Learning Management System (LMS) so that you simply link to other resources.

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OER - Thrills and Chills by Jani James, 10/31/13. This work is licensed under: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Thrill Four

• Rather than walking through countless bookstores, libraries and such (actually I love going to such places), you have the option of letting your fingers do the typing and wandering through a world of resources from the privacy of your home in your PJs if desired.

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OER - Thrills and Chills by Jani James, 10/31/13. This work is licensed under: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Thrill Five

• Customization of educational materials is very easy when texts are shared in electronic form. I can tailor a textbook, an activity, the presentation of an image however I wish, rather than being limited to what’s been created by others for different audiences and purposes.O

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OER - Thrills and Chills by Jani James, 10/31/13. This work is licensed under: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Chill One

• Searching for the perfect thing you’d like to include in a course takes time because there are so many resources out there. It’s fun to find a pretty or interesting picture, but if you have the real business of education to get on with, you may have to be picky and being picky means investing a lot of effort. Buying a text is a piece of cake, by comparison.O

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OER - Thrills and Chills by Jani James, 10/31/13. This work is licensed under: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Chill Two

• Building an educational resource out of OER could result in quite a mosaic of materials with a variety of creative commons licenses.

• You probably don’t need to be a lawyer (or play one on TV), but you will need to be very careful to license your own work in a way that corresponds to every single license governing the OER you’ve embedded in YOUR work.O

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OER - Thrills and Chills by Jani James, 10/31/13. This work is licensed under: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Chill Three

• You need to get smart about share alike, derivative works, commercial or non-commercial licenses so that you properly use a work with a given creative commons license.

• This is important stuff because people are letting you copy their work which they still own.

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OER - Thrills and Chills by Jani James, 10/31/13. This work is licensed under: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Chill Four

• Using OER requires good computer skills - handling links, images, videos, html versions of licenses and more. In my experience, adding a photo and a link from Flickr to a simple blog reply about KILLED me! I was ready to throw my computer out the WINDOW!!! It takes some tech knowledge and patience to use OER well.O

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OER - Thrills and Chills by Jani James, 10/31/13. This work is licensed under: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Chill Five

• Remember to identify sources. I plop a photo in my power point. Now I’ve got to make sure I tell where it came from and how it’s licensed. In the case of the photo to the left, it was produced by Paul D Adams of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1899, public domain.

• I didn’t need to tell who produced the photo but it’s nice to recognize originators even when not required. A good habit!O

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OER - Thrills and Chills by Jani James, 10/31/13. This work is licensed under: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Moral of the OER Story

• OERs are a wonderful world of possibility for educators to share great things, create super courses and excite students about learning.

• Go for it!!!!

• Photo by US Fish and Wildlife Service, public domain

OER - Thrills and Chills by Jani James, 10/31/13. This work is licensed under: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/