Open Educational Resources (OER)

What is OER    Why it Matters    How it Works    Contact & Support   Resources

What is OER?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research resources that are in the public domain, or have been released with an open intellectual property license such as Creative Commons. This means that you can use the material freely or re-purpose that material. OER can be online course-ware, books, articles, websites, videos, images and many other forms of digital and print resources. Reduced cost materials are those less than $40.00 per course.

Why it Matters

Adopting and using OER materials:

 MSSU is working to keep the cost of attending higher education down for students.

 Allows legally open materials to be shared freely and adapted for use 

 Enables the university to meet our Affordability Goal (sub goal 2C)

Unrealistic textbook prices = students who: 

Do not purchase any textbook materials

Buy outdated versions online 

Do poorly or fail their courses

So How Does it Work?

1. Learn about the OER available in your subject area - Library Research and Course Guide Available
2. Request a consultation with library OER staff
3. Determine your needs with this evaluation checklist
4. Identify what works  with this Open Textbook Adoption Worksheet

1. Select appropriate tools for adoption, adaptation, or authoring
2. Integrate the OER into Blackboard - Contact the Department of Distance Learning
3. Inform the bookstore that OER is being used in place of a textbook - Contact Greg Needham
4. Beta test OER workability
5. Re-work or consider alternate options if necessary

1. Use your materials to teach your course
2. Share materials and experience using OER with other faculty
3. Review and revise content as needed.

Contact and Support

General questions should be sent to oer@mssu.edu  

For information on finding OER resources contact: Spiva Library

• Library Director, James Capeci capeci-j@mssu.edu

For information on integrating OER into Blackboard contact:

• Director, Scott Snell snell-s@mssu.edu
• Instructional Designer, Diana Fordham fordham-d@mssu.edu
• Instructional Designer, Felicia Morley morley-f@mssu.edu

OER initiatives are part of the Digital Learning Advisory Committee.

Resources

Open Education at MSSU 2020

Please see the OER playlist on the library Youtube page.