What is OER?
Open Educational Resources
Open Educational Resources are "teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions." – UNESCO
OER includes full courses, textbooks, or any instructional materials including images, videos, or documents associated with teaching and learning. – CCOER
5R Permissions – The Core of OER
The 5R permissions or activities are the core of open educational resources. These five legal permissions are:
- Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
- Reuse – the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
- Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
- Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
- Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)
Reference
"The 5R Permissions of OER" from Defining OER | Lumen Learning.
Vol State OER Starter Kit
Faculty and staff are invited to email Bryan Saums (bryan.saums@volstate.edu) to enroll in the Vol State OER Starter Kit, a resource in eLearn for anyone interested in learning more about and/or transforming their courses to include OER materials. Including OER materials in your courses could be as simple as switching one material for another or as radical as completely changing your teaching style.
Join us to learn about OER and become a part of the Vol State OER community!
What is Vol State doing?
2022 Cycle 3 TBR OER Grant Recipients
The Tennessee Board of Regents awarded the following grants to Volunteer State faculty for the following projects. Congratulations!
Kelly Ormsby (team lead) along with Agapi Theodorou-Shapiro, Taylor Moore, Lucas Flatt, and Diana Hardin are creating OER materials for ENGL 0810: Skills for English Composition.
Stella Pierce (team lead) and Melanie Cochran received a grant to revitalize two courses: HIST 2010: Early U.S. History and HIST 2020: Modern U.S. History, which will help students save on textbook costs in two classes.
Jeremy Shipley (team lead) and Matthew Williams-Wyant are writing a textbook that will be free for students enrolled in PHIL 1030: Introduction to Philosophy.
Faculty at Vol State are adopting, adapting, and creating OER to use in their classes.
OER Textbooks are used in
- CITC 1334
- COMM 2045
- ENGL 1010
- SOCI 1010
- SOCI 1040
- PSYC 1030
- PSYC 2130
- READ 0810
OER materials are used by professors teaching Education, English, Mechatronics, and Theater courses.
Faculty are using free content or library resources to reduce the costs of learning materials for students.
The College is a member of these organizations that support open learning.
- Achieving the Dream (ATD) * VSCC - participating institution The mission of ATD is "to lead and support a national network of community colleges to achieve sustainable institutional transformation through sharing knowledge, innovative solutions and effective practices and policies leading to improved outcomes for all students."
- Online Learning Consortium (OLC) * VSCC - institution membership The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) is a collaborative community dedicated to advancing quality digital teaching and learning experiences. Create an OLC user account for to use resources. VSCC Institutional membership
Vol State OER Starter Kit
Faculty and staff are invited to email Bryan Saums (bryan.saums@volstate.edu) to enroll in the Vol State OER Starter Kit, a resource in eLearn for anyone interested in learning more about and/or transforming their courses to include OER materials. Including OER materials in your courses could be as simple as switching one material for another or as radical as completely changing your teaching style.
Join us to learn about OER and become a part of the Vol State OER community!
What are other colleges doing?
In this section are examples of how Higher Education promotes and uses OER.
- Lansing Community College - OERLansing Community College [Michigan] has adopted OER for courses in a variety of disciplines.
- Montgomery College - MC OpenMC Open are Z-courses and Z-degrees that make use of Open Educational Resources at Montgomery College [Maryland]
- NOVA Online - OERNorthern Virginia [NOVA] Community College uses OER in many online courses.
- Salt Lake Community College - Open SLCCOpen SLCC is the Open Educational Resources program at Salt Lake Community College
- ZTC - College of the CanyonsTextbooks available under the Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) degree initiative from College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita CA
- MSU Denver OEROER grant and awards program at Metropolitan State University of Denver
- OERs - Portland State UniversityThis links you to OER resources and information on programs and initiatives underway at Portland State University.
- TSU-EXCEL4edTennessee State University is working to provide students and faculty easy access to quality FREE and OPEN eTextbooks and digital curriculum resources to reduce the cost of textbooks.
- UT Open Textbook / OER Grant ProgramThe University of Tennessee's Open Textbook/OER Grant Program incentivizes adoptions and adaptations of OERs–and free, openly-licensed textbooks
- Affordable Learning Georgia Affordable Learning Georgia (ALG) is a University System of Georgia (USG) initiative to promote student success by supporting the implementation of affordable alternatives to expensive commercial textbooks
- LOUIS: Affordable Learning LOUISIana LOUIS partners libraries and faculty to save students money on education by reducing the costs of instructional materials through the use of Affordable Education Resources (AERs), Open Educational Resources (OERs), and other open access materials.
- Z-Degree Mississippi Mississippi's plan to expand adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Mississippi public higher education.
- Open Oregon Open Oregon Educational Resources promotes textbook affordability for community college and university students, and facilitates widespread adoption of open, low-cost, high-quality materials.
- OER State Policy Tracker - SPARC Tracks the latest state-by-state policy activity, along with policies enacted in past years.
- TN Open Education Hub A Statewide Professional Learning Community for Faculty. Inspiration. Ideation. Collaboration.
Teaching & Learning Center Resources
Guides from the TLC to assist faculty.