Support your students by using Open Educational Resources (OER)

A street sign that says open.

At many higher education institutions, we have reached the crucial time of year where we select our textbooks for the upcoming academic year. Often, we have textbook companies explaining why their books are the best choice, but there is an alternative option that faculty members may not be aware of… Open Educational Resources (OER). What are OER My favourite definition of OER comes from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). UNESCO defines OER as: teaching, learning or research materials that are in the public domain or released with intellectual property licenses that facilitate the free use, adaptation… Read More

Building an entire post-secondary course using Open Educational Resources

HTML code displayed on a screen.

This post is an adaptation from a previous conference presentation, Building an entire post-secondary course using Open Educational Resources – Online Learning 2018. This post will discuss my personal experience building a course solely using Open Educational Resources. I will share the positive and challenging aspects, as well as the learning that occurred along the way. In the 2017-2018 academic year, Durham College, in conjunction with other post-secondary institutions, received funding from eCampusOntario to develop a new program for eLearning Developers. Part of this program was an HTML Introduction course, which I was very familiar with. The course was already being offered… Read More

Diving deeper into Open Educational Resources

A person diving into the water.

Please note: This blog post is a course related assessment for the Master of Arts in Learning and Technology program at Royal Roads University. When I first registered into the Master of Arts in Learning and Technology (MALAT) program, I never envisioned discovering a topic that I would become so passionate about, and that would change my life so much in one year. While completing the readings and residency for the LRNT 521 – Digital Learning Environments, Networks, Communities and LRNT 522 – Introduction to Research: Critical Reading and Writing courses, I was introduced to the topic of OER. The… Read More

The Disadvantages of Open Educational Resources

An open sign.

Please note: This blog post is a course related assessment for the Master of Arts in Learning and Technology program at Royal Roads University. When reviewing the unit 1 readings, I was pleased to see Teaching in a digital age by Tony Bates listed. I previously secured a hardcopy edition of Tony’s book at the 2017 World Conference on Online Learning and looked forward to the opportunity to read the book again, after a year of additional studies in the fields of learning and technology. With a new found interest in Open Educational Resources (OER), the first chapter I decided… Read More

MALAT Virtual Symposium Review

I had the pleasure of attending the Master of Arts in Learning and Technology (MALAT) Virtual Symposium, a five-day event covering several different areas of the field of digital learning. Although the symposium happened in real-time during the month of April, it kept with the MALAT programs theme of Open and is still available for asynchronous viewing. The event is broken into three separate tracks and although each one is of interest to me, I chose to attend the Stories from the Field track. This aligns with my current role in the Durham College Centre for Academic and Faculty Enrichment… Read More