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Open Educational Resources (OER)

This guide provides information about Open Educational Resources, or OER, including how to find and evaluate them.

Open Educational Practices (OEP)

When instructors are working with OER, they are often participating in a type of work known as Open Educational Practices (OEP). There are four ways that instructors typically participate in OEP:

  1. The adoption and use of open educational resources (OER). This is often considered part of traditional teaching practices.

  2. The adaptation or creation of OER to meet a course’s needs. This work is often time-intensive and may be compensated by grant funding, departmental support, or course release to facilitate the production of open content.

  3. The use of open pedagogy or other innovative teaching methods that incorporate OER into the instruction of learners.

  4. The study of OER and/or its impact on learners. This might fall under the category of research, Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL), or it may be considered part of traditional teaching practice.

Fitting Open Education into P&T Requirements

While institutional guidelines for P&T vary widely, faculty are typically assessed in the areas of research, teaching, and service. OEP can fit into all three categories, and faculty should consider where their own work in open education best fits.

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Abbey Elder
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