Open Educational Resources (OERs) are freely available materials that can be downloaded, edited, and shared to better serve Students, Faculty, Librarians and Educational Leaders and even Industry and Organizational Leaders. Open Educational Resources may include both physical and digital learning materials such as textbooks, lesson plans, assignments, games, multimedia, etc.
As educational institutions of all levels continue to experience tightening budgets, areas in which to reduce costs represent a shrinking pool. Those who have been integrating OERs within curricula over the last few years, however, have quickly recognized not only significant cost savings, but have also pioneered valuable research studies exploring topics around a) student/faculty/administrator/librarian perceptions of OERs in practice; b) various pedagogical approaches; and c) policy and practice implications.
Table of Contents
Editorial LetterMelissa Layne
3 Questions for an OER Leader Featuring Rory McGreal
The Development and Implementation of Missing Tools and Procedures at the Interface of a University's Learning Management System, its OER Repository and the Austrian OER ReferatoryChristoph Ladurner, Christian Ortner, Karin Lach, Martin Ebner, Maria Haas, Markus Ebner, Raman Ganguly and Sandra Schön
Evaluation of the UNESCO Recommendation Concerning Open Educational ResourcesStephen Downes
Towards a Working Definition of Open PedagogyAlan Witt
A Qualitative Analysis of Open Textbook ReviewsMerinda McLure and Olga Belikov
Evaluation of Open Educational Resources Among Students in Blended Research Methods and Statistics CourseworkLindsay A. Phillips, Laura S. Gelety, and Lisa A. Hain
Exploring Faculty Perceptions of OER and Impediments to their Use: A Multi-Institutional Study Abbey Elder, Amanda Larson, Elaine Thornton, and Will Cross
"Open"-ing Up Courses for Diversity and Deeper Learning Marcos D. Rivera, Kaity Prieto, Shanna Smith Jaggars, e alexander, and Amanda L. Folk
Comparative Analysis of an Open Educational Resource Textbook and Commercial Textbook on Student Outcomes in an Online Nursing CourseJamie Murphy and Nancy Winters
Overcoming Textbook Access Barriers in an Introductory Psychology Course: An OER Study at a Hispanic-Serving Institution Adam John Privitera
Moving Towards an Open Educational Resources (OER) Pedagogy: Presenting Three Ways of Using OER in the Professional Writing ClassroomSarbani Sen Vengadasalam
Meta-syntheses of OER Transition in Online Higher EducationMichele Wells, Robert Jesiolowski, Jeanelle Verwayne, Jessie Pablo
