During the Fall 2014 semester, 11 SIUE faculty members and more than 300 SIUE students are participating in a pilot project using Open Educational Resources (OER) in their courses. The goal of this project is to to gauge the feasibility of using OER as no-cost or low-cost alternatives to traditional textbooks.
A common definition of OER comes from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation:
OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.
Learn more about OER, including tips and best practices for use in higher education, in the August issue of Campus Technology.
This summer, faculty members involved in the OER pilot project worked with ITS and Lovejoy Library personnel to locate, identify, and incorporate OER into their Fall 2014 courses. At the start of the Fall semester, students were assigned iPads to use during the semester in order to access OER and other educational resources selected by their professors to replace the physical textbook.
OER Pilot Press Information
Dr. Mark Poepsel, a faculty member in the Mass Communication department and an OER pilot participant, and Matthew Schmitz, Associate Director, ITS IDLT Center, spoke with Doug Jenkins of WBGZ (1570 AM in Alton, IL) about the OER pilot as part of the Let's Talk program. During the interview, Mark and Matt discussed several topics including the formation of the pilot, how the students and faculty are responding to the OER, how Mark is utilizing OER material in his course, and the future for OER at SIUE and in education in general. Use the link below to access the broadcast.
Mark Poepsel and Matthew Schmitz discuss OER with WBGZ's Doug Jenkins on Let's Talk (September 25, 2014).
Click here to view the official press release for the OER Pilot Program.
OER Pilot Details
The OER pilot activities are separated into three phases:
Phase 1: Investigation and Development - Summer 2014
- Faculty participants (the instructors of record) worked with instructional designers from ITS and subject librarians from Lovejoy Library to locate, curate, and/or develop OER for use in the chosen Fall 2014 course.
- Faculty participants worked together with facilitators to develop assessment criteria for the pilot.
- ITS and faculty participants communicated with enrolled and interested students to inform them of their courses' inclusion in the pilot.
- ITS developed support resources for students.
- Faculty participants requested free apps to be pre-installed on their students' iPads.
Phase 2: Implementation - Fall 2014
- The selected courses will use OER in place of the standard textbook, using the iPad mini as the delivery device.
- Faculty participants will use the assessment instruments created during the summer.
- ITS will provide an orientation session and support resources for students.
- ITS will provide support to students and faculty for the devices.
- Faculty participants can request more free apps to be installed on their students' iPads by completing this form.
Phase 3: Evaluation and Reporting - Spring 2015
- Faculty participants will write evaluation reports about the pilot.
- ITS and Lovejoy librarians will assist faculty participants in obtaining data for potential publications and presentations related to the OER pilot.
If you would like to learn more about using OER in your classes, please contact members of the ITS Instructional Design & Learning Technologies Center by e-mail at help@siue.edu or by phone at (618) 650-5500.
