Abstract:

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation, and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. By adopting OER, the professor introduces expanded access to a wider range of resources that supplement course materials beyond the textbook.

Based on positive feedback in student course evaluations in her Fall 2021 course, Dr. Meloun theorizes that OER will improve student learning outcomes. The goal of this study is to create a course that purposefully uses OER to quantify student outcomes for a Fall 2022 course. This paper will present a specific plan of action that will demonstrate how faculty and librarians can work cooperatively to implement OER.

To document the extent of learner success, Dr. Meloun and Ms. DiGiallonardo will first evaluate the standard course syllabus to identify any deficiencies in course content. Once needs are recognized, OER will be discovered and evaluated. Curated resources are adapted to the course learning outcomes. OER resources will then be implemented in the course. Evaluation methods are pre/post survey, student course evaluations, and interviews using open ended questions.

As the university begins to move toward using OER, this study will contribute to the knowledge base for further implementation. Results of the study will also be shared among faculty by presentation to the faculty senate, the library advisory group, and in departmental faculty meetings.

Keywords:

OER.