Open Textbooks/Open Educational Resources: Understanding OER

Open Educational Resources are instructional materials intentionally created to be free to students. These materials are licensed by author/creators to permit and encourage distribution, modification, and retention. Resources may be in the form of textbooks, multimedia, full courseware, and more.

Use of Open Educational Resources encourages faculty experimentation and innovation, facilitates the practice of open pedagogy, and increases affordability of and access to educational experiences.

Researchers and educators making use of Open Educational Resources may adopt resources created by others, adapt resources for use by editing or combining elements of resources created by others, or create new openly licensed resources. The edited resources can then be re-published for further use and revision. 

OpenOKState | First Tuesdays

Dates, times and locations will be announced Fall 2024. Reach out to kathy.essmiller@okstate.edu if your division, department, unit, organization or college would like to host a session.

OER What, Why and Who

Learn the basics about OER and how their adoption, modification, and creation align with the mission and vision of Oklahoma State University. Participants will learn what open educational resources are, why they are used in higher education, and who benefits most from their inclusion in research, teaching and learning.

OER Where, How and When

Learn how to locate, evaluate, and use quality OER in your research, teaching and learning. Participants will learn about Creative Commons licenses and the role they play in facilitating the re-use of open educational resources, explore content authoring tools, and explore instances in which OER inspires innovative research, teaching and learning.

OER and RPT

Research, teaching and learning using OER have been recognized by OSU administration and the OSU faculty council as appropriate for consideration as scholarship in retention, promotion and tenure dossier. Participants in this session will have the opportunity to explore how definitions of scholarly and creative work align with OEr and practices related to their use, as well as how to articulate their impact on the field. The presenters will also share specifics concerning one academic department's intentional professional recognition of the use of OER, as well as how that department plans to leverage professional recognition to influence sustained department use of OER.

OpenOKState | Elevenses

Dates, times and locations will be announced Fall 2024. Reach out to kathy.essmiller@okstate.edu if your division, department, unit, organization or college would like to host a session.

Student Perspectives

Are you considering shifting away from requiring students to purchase commercial resources for your course? Come hear how the use of OER, library, and open resources have changed the conversation for Oklahoma state University students. Learn how the OSU community has helped save students over $4,000,000.00 in commercial textbook costs and how those savings have impacted student retention, choice of major, sense of belonging, and other decisions they make related to their OSU experience.

OER as Scholarly and Creative work

The use and creation of OER have been recognized by the OSU Faculty Council and OSU Administration as appropriate for consideration as scholarly and creative works in the retention, tenure and promotion process. Come explore how the values and practices that have helped save OSU students $4,000,000.00 since Fall 2019 align with your research goals and scholarly work. Participants will discover shared vocabularly for use in their retention and promotion dossier.

Ask us Anything

Curious about how OER might help enhance your research, teaching and learning experiences? Exploring a grant related to OER or open practices? Want to get involved but don't know where to start? Drop by and as the OpenOKState team about your next step.

OpenOKState | Power Hour

Dates, times and locations will be announced Fall 2024. Reach out to kathy.essmiller@okstate.edu if your division, department, unit, organization or college would like to host a session.

Gratitude

Come meet the OpenOKState team, share ideas about how this great work can continue, and jot a note of thanks to the students, instructors, faculty, staff and administrators who have helped save students over $4,000,000.00 by switching from required textbook purchases.

Page updated 6.2.24 KE