• Length:
    6 Weeks
  • Effort:
    4–6 hours per week
  • Price:

    FREE
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  • Institutions
    UMGCUSMx
  • Subject:
    Education & Teacher Training
  • Level:
    Introductory
  • Language:
    English
  • Video Transcript:
    English
  • Course Type:
    Self-paced on your time

Prerequisites

No pre-requisites required

About this course

Skip About this course
Today’s classrooms are dynamic, engaging and active learning spaces and our resources should be as well. Sadly, many of the available learning resources are too expensive or not dynamic or too broad to meet our instructional needs.   An essential skill for educators is to be able to infuse Open Educational Resources to meet the specific needs of their learners. 

This course is an introduction to learning the tools and practices for Designing Open Educational Resources (OER). The course begins with an educational system review of Open Education and how the rise in popularity of Creative Commons attribution has promoted the open sharing of instructional materials in both K-12 and higher education learning environments.  Then, learners review how to identify instructional learning gaps, explore OER repositories and evaluate existing OER to identify educational and course materials to meet their needs.  The course culminates with hands-on activities for remixing OER as well as designing OER in various digital media to publish educational materials to meet specific instructional needs.

No previous digital design or experience is required.  All course projects and activities utilize free or shareware based online resources and applications.

What you'll learn

Skip What you'll learn
  • Describe benefits and concerns of Open Education
  • Define OER
  • Explain the benefits and drawbacks of OER
  • Describe the role Creative Commons licensing plays in growth of OER
  • Describe UDL principles and accessibility concerns when using OER
  • Locate and evaluate OER for a specific instructional purpose
  • Remix or revise an existing OER
  • Design, develop and publish OER in variety of formats: text, image, video

Syllabus

Skip Syllabus
Module 1 OER Reality & Foundations

Present today’s educational shift to learner-centered educational experiences, discuss the benefits, pros and cons of open education resources, and copyright laws that affect the use of those resources.

Learners will define Creative Commons licensing and describe the role Creative Commons licensing plays in developing OER.

Module 2 Current repositories, identifying and evaluating OER

Learners will identify instructional need, locate and evaluate OER for a specific instructional purpose.
 
Module 3 OER Remix

Learners will remix or revise digital images and an existing OER (beyond text-based) to meet specific instructional needs.

Learners will remix or revise digital images incorporating UDL and ADA compliance when creating OER.

Module 4 OER Video Remix

Learners will remix or revise an OER digital video to meet specific instructional needs.

Learners will remix or revise an OER digital video incorporating UDL and ADA compliance when creating OER.

Module 5 Developing and Publishing Original Video OER

Learners will be able to create an original OER digital video to meet specific instructional needs.

Module 6 Developing OER Curated Library

Learners will express the role of the open movement in supporting a learner-centered educational approach:
  • Learners will formulate a personal philosophy of open education learner-centered instructional strategies and OER.
  • Learners will create and publish a library of at least 3 targeted, ADA-compliant OER.

Meet your instructors

University of Maryland Global Campus
University System of Maryland
Randy Hansen
Professor and Program Chair, Learning Design and Technology
University of Maryland Global Campus
Michael Shimer
Teaching Fellow, Learning Design and Technology
University of Maryland Global Campus

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Frequently asked questions

1.What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?

Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. OER include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.

2.How does OER help educators and learners?

Open educational resources give educators the ability to adapt instructional resources to the individual needs of their learners, to ensure that resources are up-to-date, and to ensure that cost is not a barrier to accessing high-quality standards-aligned resources.

3. Will I be finding OER or developing OER?

Both.  We begin by identifying an instructional need for the OER, looking at current repositories with OER, selecting and evaluating an OER.  The second part of the course is around modifying and, or developing OER to meet your specific instructional need.

4. What types of OER will I learn to develop? 

During the Designing OER MOOC, we will create multiple modes of OER, from text based for both digital and print, to images, videos and animations. 

5. Will I need to purchase any software or subscriptions for this course? 

No, all course projects and activities utilize free or shareware based online resources and applications

 
FAQ statement #1 and #2 were adapted from "#GoOpen: OER for K-12 Educators" by Doug Levin and "Frequently Asked Questions: OER for K-12 Educators", both of which are licensed under CC BY 4.0.