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OPEN FL: For Beginners

Guide for the open and affordable learning community of Florida, OPEN FL.

Introduction to OER

The OPEN FL community's goal is to promote open and affordable learning in the state of Florida, in one way by encouraging the adoption, adaptation, and authoring of Open Educational Resources (OER).  But what exactly does OER mean?  Definitions vary among organizations, states, and key thinkers in the field.  

The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) defines Open Educational Resources (OER) as "teaching, learning, and research resources that are free of cost and access barriers, and which also carry legal permission for open use. Generally, this permission is granted by use of an open license (for example, Creative Commons licenses).”

In Florida, for material to be considered OER, it should be "high-quality teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits the free use and repurposing of such resources by others. The term may include other resources that are legally available and free of cost to students. Open educational resources include, but are not limited to, full courses; course materials; modules; textbooks; faculty-created content; streaming videos; exams; software; and other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge" (The 2023 Florida Statutes 1006.73). 

For more information on Florida's perspective of open content, see the Spectrum of Open tab in this guide.

By being available outside of paywalls and free of the necessity of interlibrary loan, OER has the potential to:

  • Showcase research to the widest possible audience.
  • Enhance a school’s reputation as well as that of the teacher or researcher.
  • Demonstrate social responsibility by providing education access for all.
  • Share best practice internationally.
  • Create additional opportunities for peer review.
  • Maximize the use and increases the availability of educational materials.
  • Raise the quality standards for educational resources by gathering more contributors
  • Source: Why OER / Benefits - Open Educational Resources (OER) - Library at Pace University

Why Open?

Open Education Resources clearly save students money on textbooks.  After years of use and research we know that open resources can provide so much more.  Students are just one body that benefits from their use, and we now know that faculty, staff, administrators, and institutions have all started to reap the rewards.  Over the decades we have found or gained with:

  • Affordability 
  • Accessibility 
  • Credibility 
  • Customizability
  • Discoverability 
  • Equability
  • Equality 
  • Flexibility 
  • Retentivity
  • Quality 

"OER degree pathway implementation can contribute to transformational institutional change...At many of colleges, adoption of OER is spreading beyond clear issues of student affordability to the less obvious issues of access, completion, reducing time to degree, decreasing debt, advancing equity, and rethinking pedagogy, setting into motion policy, funding and systems change at the institutional, state and federal level."

-Dr. Karen A. Stout, President & CEO, Achieving the Dream

"ZTC Brochure" by Kelsey Smith, West Hills College Lemoore, is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Starting Line

Why would an institution go open?

"From a college finance point of view, the grants have more than paid for themselves. We've found that one in five students in an OER-based course takes an extra class compared to students in non-OER sections. When students save money on books, they have more money or more time left over for another course."  "We've had two semesters of data now putting the number at between 0.61 and 0.69 credit hours per student."

Dave Braunschweig, Professor of Computer Information Systems at Harper College

 

Open Doors, Open Minds Student Panel, Mar 4, 2024 - Hear their stories, insights, and recommendations on how open education can improve learning outcomes, reduce costs, and foster a more inclusive and equitable learning environment.