GOOD
FREE

“ . . . sustainability problems plague open educational resources . . . the inherent contradiction in the idea of sustaining and upgrading a product that is given away.”
The Promise of Open Educational Resources, Marshall S. Smith and Catherine M.
Casserly, Change, September/October 2006

 Curricular content for both secondary and post-secondary
 Complete course foundations with a flexible learning object structure
 Sustaining membership to maintain and grow the repository

College
Course Foundations
US History I
US History II
American Government
Psychology
Statistics for the Social Sciences
Religions of the World
Elementary Algebra
Introductory Calculus I
Introductory Calculus II
General Calculus I
General Calculus II
Calculo General I (Spanish)
Calculo General II (Spanish)
Introductory Physics I (algebra-based)
Introductory Physics II (algebra-based)
General Physics I (calculus-based)
General Physics II (calculus-based)
Environmental Science
Non-majors Biology
Advanced Placement
Course Foundations
AP US History I
AP US History II
AP US Government and Politics
AP Calculus AB I
AP Calculus AB II
AP Calculus BC I
AP Calculus BC II
AP Physics B I
AP Physics B II
AP Physics C I
AP Physics C II
AP Environmental Science
AP Biology
High School
Course Foundations
College Prep Physics I
College Prep Physics II
Algebra 1a
Algebra 1b
Curso de Álgebra 1A (Spanish)
Curso de Álgebra 1B (Spanish)
Coming in 2010
Algebra 1 (NEW)

• Media rich
• Editorially rigorous
• Instructionally sound

Complete teaching materials
Correlated with popular textbooks & state standards

Can be used within popular CMS’s and repositories.
Customizable by a teacher, a district, or a state.

Graphics
Text
Interactive Exercise
Documentary Video
Newsreel
Documents

Instructor
Presentation
Lower-Level Course
Advanced or
Remedial Study

Educators, designers, technologists, and administrators working together to promote the continuous improvement of online courses through collaborative development of high-quality content and instruction.

Member organizations may adapt
NROC material to:
 Enhance an existing course
 Launch a new course
 Supplement
 Distribute in a variety of ways and to support institutional innovation...

Credit
Recovery Making textbooks supplemental
Reaching students with special needs
Jumpstarting dual enrollment & AP prep
Cross-disciplinary studies
Seeding statewide repositories
Blended
Learning

Alabama Department of Education
Chattanooga State Technical & Community College*
Clark County Virtual High School (NV)
Colorado Community Colleges Online*
Colorado Online Learning*
Florida Distance Learning Consortium*
Georgia Virtual School (DOE)
Greenville County Virtual School (SC)
Gwinnett County Online Campus (GA)
IDEAL- NM
Idaho Digital Learning Academy*
Illinois Virtual High School
Iowa Community Colleges Online Consortium*
Kentucky Statewide Consortium*
Los Angeles Unified School District
Louisiana Virtual School (DOE)
Lubbock Independent School District (TX)
Maryland State Department of Education*
Michigan Virtual High School*
Minnesota Learning Commons (Statewide)*
Mid-Hudson BOCES Consortium (NY)
Mississippi Virtual School (DOE)
Missouri Department of Education
Nebraska Statewide Partnerships for Innovation*
North Carolina Community College System
Oregon Department of Education
South Carolina Virtual School (DOE)
University System of Georgia Board of Regents*
University of Texas at Brownsville
UT TeleCampus*
Virtual Virginia (DOE)
West Virginia University at Parkersburg
Whitfield School District (GA)
*
Advisors


MVLO’s initial focus (2002) was to provide online courses for students. Today there are three components:
•
•
Maryland Virtual School
Online High School Assessment resources
•
Online Professional Development

Started using NROC in 2006 to offer courses that were not in our course catalog. MVLO provided the online teacher.

Have evolved to use NROC resources to supplement the content in the Online HSA project.

Students

Use several AP courses with MVS: Environmental
Science, US History, Calculus, Physics
•
Over 200 student enrollments in theses courses
•
Build local capacity to provide own instruction
Teachers

Access to resources to integrate into classroom instruction through MSDE’s HippoCampus site
•
•
PD with tech integration and content specialists
Difficult to track classroom use - MD districts have
“local control” over curricula

Course Development


Utilize NROC course content in Online HSA course/resource development
An advantage of OER - rights to “change it up”
Methods

Embedded- used the .swf files “as is”
Did not use an entire presentation for one lesson

“Scaffolded”- modified the .swf files
More control over presentation (content/LMS)


Presentation embedded in page

Key information “pulled out”
• Only covers Section 2 of
NROC media
• Added script
• Formative assessment with activity


Presentation modified from original

Information “scaffolded”
• Presented in Captivate
• Removed “extra” information
• Developed other activities to support concepts




Local school systems looking for content to supplement classroom instruction
Move to agency level membership for broader local access
High-quality media is cost-prohibitive for smaller systems
Budget savings


OER courses/content has saved at least $125,000 in development costs (more if purchase and modify)
Time savings and content that is vetted and maintained




Media files are difficult to edit or “break apart” for use in multiple areas
•
Smaller objects to support multiple audiences
Importing into different LMS
•
Consistent styles and designs
Intellectual property / copyright (even with CC licensing)
Next Steps


Move to include “open texts” within courses
Meta-tagging for subject searches / “bridge” to NROC repository for federated searching

New course development/adaptations


EdTech grant priorities for hybrid course development and piloting during the school day
Hybrid would combine online and f-2-f instruction
ARRA funding for collaborative initiatives with NROC

Multi-state development initiatives
•
Common content standards?
•
Similar design standards?

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Link to HippoCampus
Make HippoCampus assignments
Blog about it, add links to directory sites
Introduce faculty to HippoCampus tools
Offer feedback on HippoCampus
Know of great content? Suggest HippoCampus as a sharing vehicle
Consider other institutional uses possible through membership

montereyinstitute.org/nroc mdk12online.org
OER site: Free for individuals! Visit HippoCampus.org
today.