Open Education

What is Open Education?

Open Education is a movement where educators provide learning materials openly and without cost to students. Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely available, high quality teaching materials that carry Creative Commons licenses allowing faculty adoption and remixing when adopted into a course. Zero Textbook Costs (ZTC) includes library materials, and freely available materials that may not be remixed by faculty when adopting into a course. Adopting OER gives students the opportunity to learn without the burden of debt and gives everyone equal access to education. Adoption of freely available materials also ensures all students have access to the materials on the first day of classes, maximizing the learning cycle within a course. 

Open Education is also a movement where educators redesign courses and assignments to support students publishing meaningful assignments. At the heart of Open Education is a move away from throw-away, class only assignments toward public, well-revised assignments students can use beyond the classroom. Use the links below to begin your Open Education journey, and to learn more about how Millersville University is involved with this movement!

Adopting OER

The following OER was written and developed by Professor Kim Auger, Dr. A Nicole Pfannenstiel, and Mr. Matt Fox. After working with several cohorts of faculty adopters in the Open Textbook Initiative (OTI), and partly due to the pandemic sending everyone home, the authors created a stand-alone resource to support faculty adoption of OER materials in their course. This book was funded by a PA GOAL grant. This book is being shared as OER to benefit all faculty, librarians, instructional designers, and ultimately students. 

The OER Adoption Journey

Adopting OER: Video resources to support adoption

  • FINDING OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES - DR. OLLIE DREON
    • Dr. Ollie Dreon overviews how to find and identify quality resources for course adoption.
  • FREE/LIBRE AND OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE (FLOSS): ALTERNATIVES TO SOFTWARE
    • In this video, Dr. Chris Stieha discusses adopting free open-source software, like R, to support student learning and data analysis. 
  • OERS? WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SAY?- PRESENTED BY: DR. OLLIE DREON
    • Still skeptical about free, open source resources? This video engages with OER research and student impact through 2018. 
  • READY TO PUBLISH YOUR OWN OER? QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT- PRESENTED BY: GREG SZCZYRBAK & DR. AMBER NICOLE PFANNENSTIEL
    • As with commercial textbooks, there are no perfect resources for course adoption. In this video Professor Greg Szczyrbak and Dr. A Nicole Pfannenstiel discuss how to identify where and when to publish resources, materials, assignments, and syllabi you create as part of your classroom teaching. 
  • HOW TO ENGAGE WITH THE WIDER OER COMMUNITY
    • Beyond adoption, the OER community is active and collaborative. Learn more here. 

Adopting OER: Discipline specific video resources