Snapshot
Type of Course: Online
Type of Activity: OER
Tools Used: PhET simulations
Credit
Dr. Jennifer Palomino: Physics Department
You’ve probably heard about Open Educational Resources (OER) and how great they are for online learning, but what are they and how do you implement them in practice? This article gives a brief overview of OER and looks at one example of how OER were used to supplement a physics course.
What is OER?
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 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.
In other words, OER are materials that can be provided to students at no cost to you, them, or your institution.
Pros and Cons
There are obvious pros and cons to using OER:
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Greater accessibility for more students | Instructors can’t control the quality |
| Can be widely distributed | Lack of interaction between teachers and students |
| Low-cost method to supplement class materials | Language and cultural barriers may become a problem |
| New information is available quickly | Technology issues are out of the hands of the instructors |
| More affordable for students | Some content labeled OER may in fact carry copyright concerns |
| Information is continually being improved | Contributors may not update content regularly due to lack of incentive |
Read more about these considerations here.
Use this impact calculator to see the potential impacts of implementing OER.
Read this literature review on all OER articles out there for more information.
Creating a fully OER course can be a big challenge. Perhaps you’re not ready to completely replace your textbook with free resources available online, or find the various OER repositories out there just don’t have what you need right now. But implementing OER can be a gradual process. You don’t have to replace everything in one go.
Gradual OER Implementation in Practice
Dr. Jennifer Palomino, a physics instructor at Texas State, elected to supplement her textbook using OER. Specifically, she used simulations available from PhET to allow students to practice applying different physics basics.
Implementation
In an “Explore and Practice” section of each lesson within the LMS, the instructor included a simulation from PhET for students. PhET has different simulations categorized by discipline and grade level. Here is an example of a physics simulation on bending light from PhET: Bending Light
Dr. Palomino also used some of these simulations to create mini lectures. Although working through the simulations was entirely optional for students, the instructor did not want to leave them without the support they needed to complete the activity. Consequently, she recorded herself with voice over going through the simulations in some weeks to give students an idea of what to do, and what they should be observing. With her permission, an example of one of these video lectures is included here:
https://mediaflo.txstate.edu/Watch/f6Z9Win5
Student Response
As already mentioned, OER materials can come with technical problems that are outside the control of the instructor. Some students in Dr. Palomino’s course struggled to make the simulations work for them, but two students (out of 63) specifically listed the simulations as an aspect of the course they liked the most.
Finally, some students specifically mentioned wanting more mini lecture videos where the instructor worked through the simulations, indicating a strong desire on the part of the students to really get the most out of the simulations. One student stated:
I believe in week one there were videos posted with a voiceover on the simulation going through questions that were on the homework. I believe if that were done for every week it would be extremely helpful. … Watching it that way stuck with me more than me doing it myself. If both options were offered I think that more of the concepts would stick better.
Dr. Palomino intends to, over time, create mini lectures for all of the simulations.
OER Repositories
What follows is a list of OER links to get you started:
Thank you for this and the ideas to start to incorporate OER into my lectures.