Open Educational Resources
Sample Communications Slides for Educators and Administrators
CC BY Achieve 2015
Using These Slides
These slides are intended to be used by educators, administrators,
policymakers and others who seek to learn more about or advocate for the
use of Open Educational Resources (OER).
These slides could be used to inform any of the stakeholder groups listed
above, along with parents, community groups or business groups.
You are welcome and encouraged to modify these slides to suit your
needs, including removing information or adding state- or district-specific
information.
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Open Educational Resources
(OER) Definition
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and
learning materials that reside in the public domain or have
been released under an open license. These resources may
be used free of charge, distributed without restriction
and modified without permission.
OER range from small-scale learning objects,
such as classroom activities, to full lessons,
units and textbooks.
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Importance of Communicating About OER
In Achieve’s work with educators regarding OER, one of the
most frequently cited barriers to using OER in the classroom is
lack of knowledge among educators about OER.
Developing messages and communication strategies about OER
can support the use of OER by disseminating knowledge.
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:
Benefits of OER
As states implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), they
have the opportunity to leverage the “common” in the CCSS by
sharing exemplary tools, resources and practices. Educators can
leverage the larger scale created by common standards by sharing
OER aligned to the CCSS.
Educators can engage with OER in the following ways:
Retain — The right to make, own and control copies of the content (e.g.,
download, duplicate, store and manage)
Revise — Adapt and improve OER so that they better meet the needs of
teachers and students
Remix — Combine OER to produce new open materials
Reuse — Use the original or new versions of OER in different contexts
Redistribute — Make copies and share the original
OER or new versions, free of traditional
copyright restrictions
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Source: Wiley, David. Defining the “Open” in Open Content.
http://opencontent.org/definition/.
Online Resources vs. OER
Online Resources
Available only digitally on the
Internet
May or may not contain an open
license that allows for their free
sharing and reuse
May have a traditional copyright
license
OER
May be available online or in a
nondigital format (such as a
printed, open textbook)
Must contain open licenses that
allow for their free sharing and
reuse
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Key Messages About OER
You should be able to boil down what you want to communicate to
your target audience to three central messages — the “key three.”
Sample key three messages about OER:
Message 1: Define the Issue — As states and districts transition to new college- and
career-ready standards, teachers need access to instructional materials that are high quality,
aligned to standards and adaptable to support use in a variety of classrooms
Message 2: Outline the Problem — States and districts need ways to ensure that
instructional materials, in whatever format they are available, are quality and aligned to
standards. Copyright restrictions on traditional instructional materials can keep teachers from
adapting and sharing quality resources that best suit their instructional needs
Message 3: Explain the Solution — The use of a blended approach to
instructional materials that includes traditional, digital and open educational
resources offers teachers the opportunity to use, freely share and adapt quality,
standards-aligned resources to meet the needs of classrooms
Guidance on developing key messages
about OER is available at www.achieve.org/oer-rubrics.
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Determining the Quality and
Alignment of OER
A second barrier to using OER is questions about the quality of OER and
where to find quality OER.
Achieve created a set of rubrics and an online tool to evaluate the quality and
alignment of OER: www.achieve.org/oer-rubrics
• Rubrics are embedded into an online evaluation tool used to evaluate
resources on OER Commons: www.oercommons.org
For lesson- or unit-length OER, educators can use the
EQuIP rubrics for ELA/literacy and mathematics:
www.achieve.org/equip
Achieve is developing guidance for using each
of the above measures of quality, both separately
and together in a quality review process
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Example of an OER on OER Commons
Resource
Ratings
Licensing
Available at
www.oercommons.org/courses/alex-lesson-plan-fractions-on-a-number-line
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Gauging Awareness and
Creating Feedback Loops
A survey can be a good way to learn more about OER efforts currently
under way in your state, region or district and to gauge awareness about
OER.
Surveys can accomplish the following objectives:
Assess respondents’ awareness and support of OER
Gauge respondents’ understanding of OER
Assess the reach of and satisfaction with OER that have been provided
Identify effective communication and outreach mechanisms
Identify challenges to implementation and potential solutions
Establish feedback loops about the use of OER in CCSS implementation
A template online survey and survey guidance
document are available at
www.achieve.org/oer-rubrics.
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