Affordable Textbook Program

Module 2: Finding and Evaluating Open Educational Resources

Objective: Identify relevant OER and evaluate using appropriate criteria

Pre-work: Finding OER

1. Read “Repositories and Search Tools” from The OER Starter Kit. 
2. Visit your library's OER research guide: 
   • Eastern Kentucky University Open Educational Resources
   • Murray State University Library eBooks and Course Textbooks and Textbook Collections
   • University of Kentucky Alternative Textbooks
   • Western Kentucky University Affordable Textbooks Initiative

Pre-work: Evaluating OER

1. Readings from The OER Starter Kit:
   • Considerations for Using or Creating OERs 
   • Evaluating OERs 
   • OER in Print 

Activity:

Identify one or two potential OERs for adoption or adaptation using the OER Discovery Worksheet as a guide.

Discussion:

1. Did you have any particular takeaways from the readings?
2. How hard or easy was it to find OER on your topic?
3. Did you find OER that fit most of the criteria on the Evaluating OER Checklist?
    

Module 3: Teaching Without a Textbook / Open Pedagogy

Pre-work: Readings:

• Read Open Pedagogy from The OER Starter Kit.
• Read Jesse Stommel's essay on “ungrading”
• Read Jesse Stommel's essay: Textbooks, OER, and the Need for Open Pedagogy

Pre-work: Examples:

• Quill West's Open Pedagogy Assignments Google Doc   
• The Open Ed Group's list of OER-Enabled Pedagogy Examples
• Open Pedagogy Notebook

Discussion: 

1. Can you think of ways to incorporate open pedagogy into your course? What kinds of assignments might you use?
2. Do you have a department or community with whom you can discuss open pedagogy?
3. Do you think your department or colleagues would be supportive of non-traditional grading or assignments? 
4. How would you handle licenses and privacy for student created content? 
5. How do you feel about your technical expertise when it comes to creating open content?

Module 4: Copyright and Open Licenses

Objective: Understand how to legally use, adapt, and remix library and OER resources.
Objective: Ability apply or select appropriate Create Commons licenses. 

Pre-Work: 

• Read  “Copyright and Open Licensing” in the OER Starter Kit
• Watch “Creative Commons licenses explained.” 
• Watch “Library resources as course materials.” 

Discussion:

1. Why are open licenses important to OER?
2. What is the difference between open licenses and open access? 
3. How could you incorporate the following material types into your course? What are the restrictions on posting or sharing?
   • Article from a library subscription database (JSTOR, EBSCO, etc).
   • Chapter from an OpenStax textbook.
   • Book from the open textbook library with a CC-BY-NC-SA license.
   • Book owned by the library. 
4. Would you be comfortable sharing your work under an open license? Why or why not? 

Additional readings and resources: 

• Copyright and Fair Use: Academic and Educational Permissions 
• Best Practices for Attribution
• Choose your license 

Module 5: Universal Design / Accessibility

Objective: Evaluate course materials for accessibility
Objective: Apply principles of accessible design to course materials

Pre-work:

• Read “Accessibility and Usability” in the OER Starter Kit.
• Read the Accessibility module from Open Washington.
• Read the 7 Principles of Universal Design 

Discussion: 

• Who benefits from universal design?
• What resources are available at your institution to help with accessibility?

Activity:

• As participants to bring a PDF or word doc they use in class. use the built-in accessibility tools in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat. OR, use these examples to correct accessibility issues as a group:
  • Sample word doc
  • Sample PDF
• Note that the built in accessibility tools do not catch everything! Make sure to look for:
  • Logical title / heading use
  • Built in numbered lists
  • Image alt text
  • Table headings
  • URL formatting

Additional resources:

• Affordable Learning Georgia (2020). “ALG Accessibility Guides.”  
• BC Campus (2018). Accessibility Toolkit.

Module 6: Faculty Panel / Ambassadors
 

Discussion:

1. Why did you switch to OER materials?
2. What impact has OER had on your teaching? 
3. Have your students provided feedback on your OER textbook? 
4. What were the challenges of switching to OER?
5. What suggestions do you have for someone interested in learning more about OER? 
6. Have you found an OER solution for all your courses, or just some? Did you find it easier to adapt some kinds of courses? 
    

Module 7: Creating OER

Objective: Learn about tools and principles for OER creation
 

Resources:

• Develop Ancillary Materials (University of Michigan)
• Options for Peer Review
• Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know
• Tools for Creating OER