Open Educational Resources (OERs) at TN Tech
What are OERs?
Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning, and research resources released under an open license that permits their free use and adaptation by others. OER can be full courses, course materials, lesson plans, open textbooks, learning objects, videos, games, tests, software, or any other tool, material, or technique that supports access to knowledge.
Open Educational Resources are broadly considered to meet the “5Rs Framework,” meaning that users are free to:
Retain: Users have the right to make, archive, and own copies of the content;Reuse: Content can be reused in its unaltered form;
Revise: Content can be adapted, adjusted, modified or altered;
Remix: The original or revised content can be combined with other content to create something new;
Redistribute: Copies of the content can be shared with others in its original, revised or remixed form.
2.6
million saved in textbook costs
40+
professors from various colleges use OERs
2021
OER initiative began
Previous TN Tech OER Participants
Faculty Feedback
Below are comments from faculty after switching to OERs in their courses.
I noticed that students actually responded to assignments in ways that made it obvious that they had been reading and engaging with the material.
When students have the material, the ‘playing field’ is leveled and we tend to see more engagement from students of all socioeconomic strata.
Students responded favorably to the materials, with several specifically expressing their appreciation for the quality material that added no additional cost to their experience.
This new and varied material infused my class activities, assignments, and discussions with updated learning activities, which was fun for me and the students alike.
I have received tremendous support and encouragement from my colleagues to pursue OERs.
It is nearly impossible for a traditional text to keep up with [the field's] change of pace, which is a great advantage of using OERs.
OER textbooks give me the ability to customize the course materials. I can now create the 'perfect' course for my class instead of a one size fits all model.
The only con is that it is a lot of work for the professor to redo their classes, but it is worth it.
The experience of locating the OERs gave me some new insight into just how much free information is out there for my class.