Open Education
Adopt or Incorporate Open Educational Resources (OER)
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Introduction to Open Educational ResourcesCreated by OpenStax, this short lesson on OERs includes tips on finding and creating them, as well as using public domain resources and how to store OERs.
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The OER Starter Kit - Abby ElderThis starter kit has been created to provide instructors with an introduction to the use and creation of open educational resources (OER). The text is broken into five sections: Getting Started, Copyright, Finding OER, Teaching with OER, and Creating OER. Although some chapters contain more advanced content, the starter kit is primarily intended for users who are entirely new to Open Education.
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Adopting Open Educational Resources in the ClassroomThis course provides faculty with an introduction to the laws that influence the use, re-use, and distribution of content they may want to use in a course. Activities include finding openly licensed content for use in a class and publishing openly licensed works created by faculty.
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Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to KnowModifying an Open Textbook: What You Need to Know focuses on the technological aspects of editing open textbooks found in the Open Textbook Library or elsewhere, and will help you assess the effort, expertise, and technical tools needed. In addition, this guide includes step-by-step instructions for importing and editing common open textbook file and platform types.
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OER ToolkitThis toolkit provides information and tools to help faculty and library staff to understand, engage with, and sustain OER in their work and practice.
Create Your Own OER
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Authoring Open TextbooksThis guide is for faculty authors, librarians, project managers and others who are involved in the production of open textbooks in higher education and K-12.
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Open AuthorThis Open Author resource builder format makes it easy to combine text, pictures, sounds, files, and video, and save them as openly licensed educational resources.
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Rebus Community ForumThe Rebus Community is a non-profit organization developing a collaborative process for publishing open textbooks and associated content. Rebus is building tools and resources to support open textbook publishing, and to bring together a community of faculty, librarians, students and others working with open textbooks around the world.
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A Guide to Making Open Textbooks with StudentsA handbook for faculty interested in practicing open pedagogy by involving students in the making of open textbooks, ancillary materials, or other Open Educational Resources.
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Making the Transition to Open: The Easy Way to Create, License, and Share Free MaterialsThis self-paced course encourages faculty to participate in developing and improving OER by demonstrating some simple steps by which materials can be generated or collected, licensed, and shared. On the Canvas Commons platform.
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Accessibility StatementsOnce you have created an accessible textbook, you should provide an accessibility statement. While an accessibility statement is not required, it can be an important and useful addition to a resource for which you have worked to make accessible. This post will outline guidelines and recommendations about what to include in an accessibility statement and who the accessibility statement is for.
Learn More
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Introduction to Openness in EducationThis course provides a broad overview of the ways in which openness impacts many areas of education – curriculum, instruction, learning, policy, technology, research, and finance, among others.
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Annual Open Education ConferenceThe annual Open Education Conference is “the annual family reunion of the open education family,” and offers keynote speakers, concurrent sessions, unconference time, and other social activities to help you learn, grow, connect, and recharge with friends new and old.
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Open PraxisA peer-reviewed open access scholarly journal focusing on research and innovation in open, distance and flexible education. It is published by the International Council for Open and Distance Education - ICDE
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Open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptionsThis open access article by John Hilton synthesizes the results of 16 studies that examine either (1) the influence of OER on student learning outcomes in higher education settings or (2) the perceptions of college students and instructors of OER. The video above is a research short of the article.
Open Pedagogy
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Open Pedagogy NotebookCommunity resource for educators interested in learning more about Open Pedagogy.
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7 Things You Should Read About Open Pedagogy and the Evolution of the LMSThese resources explore the relationship between conventional learning management systems and the growing role of open pedagogy. From EDUCAUSE
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Curation of posts on Open Pedagogy #YearOfOpenSome recommended reading on the topic of Open Pedagogy.
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Navigating Open Pedagogy, Part 1First in a series on Open Pedagogy by Christina Hendricks, a Professor of Teaching in the Philosophy Department at the University of British Columbia.
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Hybrid Pedagogy - But You Can’t Do That in a STEM course!This article is part of a series working to define Critical Digital Pedagogy. It provides an example and discussion of methods for incorporating open pedagogy/open science in STEM courses.
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Attributes of Open Pedagogy: A Model for Using Open Educational Resourcesby Bronywyn Hegarty (Educational Technology July-August 2015)
Spectrum of Open Practice

Spectrum of Open Practice, by Cindy Underhill, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0
Image description:
The image is a structured chart with four vertical sections labeled "Adoption," "Adaption," "Creation," and "Connection." A different color distinguishes each section. Beneath these labels, there are three horizontal rows categorized as "Low touch," "Medium touch," and "High touch," with text expanding upon each concept.
The "Adoption" section, with "Low touch" highlights, emphasizes the simple adoption of accessible resources, possibly replacing the publisher's text. The "Adaption" section under "Medium touch" notes the alteration of texts to add context, including student work. The "Creation" section, marked as "High touch," describes students producing open educational resources. The "Connection" section, also under "High touch," discusses the application of open practices and interacting with communities.
Each section describes strategies for resource control, access, and cost implications. Under "Adoption," there's a mention of reduced costs for students. "Adaption" involves licensing and strategy for access. "Creation" and "Connection" detail community engagement, emphasizing the use of open educational resources and the development of digital literacies.