The use of open educational resources (OER)  in higher education is a topic that could have a significant impact on the future of education. In a presentation with David Wiley, Wiley discusses the impact that OER content has already had.

Many people think that OER is only digital content; however, this is not the case. More awareness needs to occur surrounding OER and its impact.

As campuses move forward with OER implementation, they need to consider marketing courses that do not have additional textbook costs. Courses that have zero commercial textbooks are called z-courses. There are therefore z-programs and z-degrees. These programs and degrees can be uniquely marketed.

As campuses hit the tipping point with OER adoption, they are encouraged to conduct a self-assessment of OER from a campus level. This self-assessment is very similar to institutional readiness process use for becoming an Open SUNY+ campus.

The FACT2 OER Task Group also explored models for scaling OER adoption. The framework for open educational resources focused on the ABC’s:

• Adopt
• Build
• Create

One of the looming challenges is finding a platform for creating and sharing content. Also, some students prefer to have printed materials such as a textbook. A deal could possibly be made with the bookstore to have OER content printed.

For faculty who are interested in adopting OER content, Open Suny Textbooks is a great starting point.

Finally, discussions will need to occur on campus about intellectual property and licensing, if they have not already occurred.

Additional OER resources

• TEI – Open Educational Resources
• Diigo – Skrabut/OER
• Diigo – Skrabut/textbooks