Rayanne Lepisto

May 5th, 2019

Week 7 Showcase Forum

Option 1 Assignment: Do the research to determine the best practices for using OERs.
Create a curated list of resources to be shared with teachers in your district. Include:
● an introduction (in your own words) explaining what OERs are and why they are
important to teachers today.
● resources for a variety of grade levels and reading levels.
● images, videos, tools, and other engaging mixed media resources.

INTRODUCTION-

What is an OER, and why are they important?

OER stands for open educational resources. The purpose of an OER is to have “teaching and
learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost”(Valenza, 2016). These teaching
materials are in the public domain, and may “include courses, modules, vidoes, tests, and
software” (Rojas, 2017). Teachers need to have more Common Core content for their classes,
and the internet has allowed teachers to easily share content with each other for little to no cost.
Gathering materials and other items for your classroom can be expensive; however, OERs allow
you to share your work and use other teachers’ lesson plans for your class.

OERs are important because “unlike fixed, copyrighted resources, OERs have been authored or
created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. In
some cases, that means you can download a resource and share it with colleagues and students”
(Valenza, 2016).

Resources

● OER Commons
 ○ Database of OERs with different criteria that you can use to find what you are
looking for. Such as educational level, subject, education standards, etc.
■ Link: https://www.oercommons.org/browse?f.keyword=reading

● University Library System-Big List of OER Resources

○ Open access books
○ Complete courses
○ Multimedia
○ Large Repositories
○ OER by subject
■ URL: https://pitt.libguides.com/openeducation/biglist

● Lumen Learning
○ This resource “is an education technology company that creates low-cost open
courseware designed to improve student success using open educational resources
(OER). Lumen partners with higher education institutions to help them transition
high-enrollment, general education courses to OER” (Lumen, 2019).
■ URL: https://www.nmc.org/organization/lumen-learning-hgf/

● MERLOT II
○ “Access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation
tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers”
(MERLOT II, 2019).
○ Community portals--support for teaching disciplines, students, and partner
portals.
○ Create your own course e-portfiolio
○ Add and create material to put on the database
○ Resources that are peer reviewed, open textbooks, and some sources that have
different accessibility services for students that have disabilities.
■ URL: http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm
 ● Open Education Consortium
○ OER resources, webinars, courses in STEM, and infographics.
○ In person events
■ URL: http://www.oeconsortium.org/

● Center for Open Education

● “A source of openly licensed textbooks available for anyone to download and use for
free” (Center for Open Education, 2019).
● Variety of topics
● Education level: high school and college
○ URL: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks

● OpenStax CNX

○ OpenStax “publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks that

are absolutely free online and low cost in print. For all our available formats, visit
openstax.org and select the subject that interests you” (OpenStax, 2019).
○ Variety of grade levels
○ Variety of topics
■ URL: https://cnx.org/

Media

Creative Commons

● Images, lesson plans and so much more!

● Link: http://search.creativecommons.org/

TED
 ● Lectures and talks on educational various topics for all ages
● Link: https://www.ted.com/#/

Khan Academy

● Educational videos on an immense amount of topics in Math, Science, Arts and

Humanities, Computing, Economics and Finance, Test prep for tests such as SATs.
● Link: https://www.khanacademy.org/about

Wikimedia Commons

● Images, videos, and music that are in the public domain.

● Link: http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Jamendo

● Free streaming and downloads of music by artists.

● Link: http://www.jamendo.com/en/

References:
Rojas, C. (2017). Open educational resources explained. Education Week.
Valenza, J. (2016). OER and you. School Library Journal.