“The Value of OER”
An Update on the NROC/SREB Partnership
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The Value of Open Educational Resources
An Update on the NROC/SREB Partnership
Terri Rowenhorst
NROC Membership Director
Monterey Institute for Technology and Education
April 17, 2009
MITE/SREB Partnership
Synergies between the NROC Project and the
SREB Educational Technology Cooperative
 SCORE repository initiatives: adaptable learning objects
 Resources and research to improve the quality of online
instruction
 Commitment to collaboration
 Professional development opportunities
 Building a community of innovators
 Affordable access and sustainable investments
Open Educational Resources
OER Providers
Living Up to the Promise
So, if OER is GOOD, and its FREE,
why isn’t everyone using it?
Unique Among OERs
• 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
Sustained by Members
Educators, designers, technologists, and administrators
working together to promote the continuous
improvement of online courses through collaborative
development of high-quality content and instruction.
A Sampling of Members
Including those from SREB* (*advisors)
Alabama Department of Education
Minnesota Online*
Cal State Fullerton
Minneapolis Public Schools*
Chattanooga State Technical & Community College*
Mid-Hudson BOCES Consortium (NY)
Clark County Virtual High School (NV)
Mississippi Virtual School (DOE)
Colorado Community Colleges Online*
Missouri Department of Education
Colorado Online Learning*
Nebraska Statewide Partnerships for Innovation*
Florida Distance Learning Consortium*
North Carolina Community College System
Georgia Virtual School (DOE)
Oregon Department of Education
Greenville County Virtual School (SC)
South Carolina Virtual School (DOE)
Gwinnett County Online Campus (GA)
University System of Georgia Board of Regents*
IDEAL- NM
University of Texas at Brownsville
Idaho Digital Learning Academy*
UT TeleCampus*
Illinois Virtual High School
Virtual Virginia (DOE)
Iowa Community Colleges Online Consortium*
West Virginia University at Parkersburg
Kentucky Statewide Consortium*
Whitfield School District (GA)
Los Angeles Unified School District
Louisiana Virtual School (DOE)
Lubbock Independent School District (TX)
Maryland Virtual Learning Opportunities (DOE)*
Michigan Virtual High School*
NROC Library - 2009
College
Course Foundations
Advanced Placement
Course Foundations
High School
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
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
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)
Quality
• Media rich
• Editorially rigorous
• Instructionally sound
Curricular
Correlated
with popular
textbooks &
state standards
Complete
teaching
materials
Flexible
Can be used within
popular CMS’s and
repositories.
Customizable by a teacher, a district, or a state.
Contextualized Learning Object
Graphics
Text
Documents
Interactive Exercise
Documentary Video
Newsreel
Reassembling by Purpose
Advanced or
Remedial Study
Instructor
Presentation
Lower-Level Course
Institutional Member HippoCampus
My HippoCampus
Value of Membership
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...
Member Usage
Credit
Recovery
Making textbooks supplemental
Reaching students with special needs
Jumpstarting dual
enrollment & AP prep
Cross-disciplinary studies
Seeding statewide repositories
Blended
Learning
NROC Network Case Studies
Opportunity:
Seeding a statewide repository to promote
content sharing and save development costs
"Starting a statewide digital repository is a challenge. At the
core of the project, the repository must offer sufficient rich
multimedia and high quality resources to attract and motivate
faculty to use repository content. In Florida, we are licensing the
high quality NROC content library to form that essential content
core."
Susie Henderson, Director, Orange Grove
NROC Network Case Studies
Opportunity:
Replacing Costly Textbooks
On teaching US History without a textbook
“. . . we turned to NROC. I left my discussion questions, midterms,
and finals the same as they were when we used the textbook, so I
could compare outcomes. I was happy to find that my students are
right on track with the digital alternative.“
Karen Kaemmerling
Chair of Social Sciences, CCCOnline
NROC Network Case Studies
Opportunity:
Maximize course development budgets by
integrating NROC’s high-quality, low-cost,
adaptable multi-media learning objects.
“NROC’s content transforms excellent teaching and online delivery
into best practices.”
Judy Lowe, Asst. VP of Distributed Education and Multi Media, CSTCC
NROC Network Case Studies
Opportunity:
To secure high quality Advanced Placement©
content and learning objects to enhance AP
course offerings for Michigan students.
The quality and flexibility of the NROC content has assisted MVS
instructors and course designers in creating numerous AP courses.
Robert Currie, Executive Director, Michigan Virtual School
NROC Network Case Studies
Opportunity:
Course redesign to replace some classroom
time with online course components
“We chose the NROC content because it is high quality, and includes
lessons, learning objects, activities and assessments, all of which may be
used separately. The fact that lessons can be “chunked” in ways that work
for the individual faculty member make them more desirable than other third
party content.”
Michael Anderson, Assistant Director, UT System TeleCampus
NROC Network Case Studies
Opportunity:
To customize and adapt rigorous content
for credit recovery
“The use of NROC for content was our starting point to transition
credit recovery from the use of content that did not align to the OPS
curriculum or standards, to a customized system tied to OPS
standards curriculum and graduation requirements.”
Rachel Wise, Ph.D.
Director of Secondary Education, OPS
NROC Network Case Studies
Opportunity:
Bridging the gap between High School and
College to support student success.
“Perkins IV launched new thinking about how Nebraska could build
statewide systems to accomplish program improvement and increase
student achievement. Our consortium provides an opportunity to
reduce the burden on local institutions by offering resources like
NROC for every student and teacher in the state. NROC provides the
opportunity for integration of career and academic education in every
classroom and learning delivery system.”
Erika Volker, Administrative Director, Nebraska PFI
NROC Network Online Community
Share it---with LEARNERS!
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
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OER success is measured by usage.
Questions?
Terri Rowenhorst
trowenhorst@montereyinstitute.org
719-783-0804
OER site: Free for individuals!
www.hippocampus.org
For more information:
www.montereyinstitute.org/nroc
SREB Discounted NROC Agency Membership:
3 year term, Centrally-hosted, Unlimited Users
$50,000 ($16,666 per year)