Iterating Toward Openness

FEBRUARY 10, 2020

Last week I promised I would write a few posts about reducing friction with regard to OER. In last week’s post I talked about how we’re making it ridiculously easy for students, faculty, and others to contribute to the maintenance and improvement of OER. “How much easier could it be? ” you might ask.

OER 96

OER Secondary Software Outcomes 96

Iterating Toward Openness

MARCH 7, 2018

tl ;dr – If a resource is licensed in a way that grants you permission to engage in the 5R activities, and grants you those permissions for free, it’s an open educational resource (OER) – no matter where you find it or how it’s being used. I have an obsession with definitions. It’s been true for decades.

OER 84

OER LMS Laptops Accessibility 84

Iterating Toward Openness

OCTOBER 9, 2018

Recently I’ve been doing both more thinking and more roll-up-your-sleeves working on continuous improvement of OER. And this process of making OER more effective every semester – also known as “continuous improvement” – is where we see some of the most exciting opportunities to collaborate with faculty.

OER 114

OER Outcomes Analysis Assessment 114

Edsurge

AUGUST 4, 2022

In May, the homework-help site that relies on student-generated content, Course Hero, dipped its toes into freely available, openly licensed alternatives known as Open Educational Resources, or OER, course materials. This was the company’s “first foray” into OER, and it is still figuring out how the OER fits, Morris says. “I

OER 136

OER Resources Education Course 136

Edsurge

JANUARY 15, 2019

But fans of OER are increasingly facing a problem. While OER started off as free online textbooks, it still costs money to produce these materials, and professors often need guidance finding which ones are high quality. So OER advocates are realizing they need to change their pitch.

OER 131

OER Course Resources Libraries 131

Edsurge

APRIL 12, 2018

New and traditional publishers are trying to offer alternatives such as open educational resources (OER), or freely downloadable and adaptable learning materials. But some providers of OER still ask for fees in return, and that has advocates concerned. The company is also banking on authors and adopters to check for quality themselves.

OER 67

OER Company Adaptive Learning Resources 67

Edsurge

MAY 23, 2017

David Wiley, a pioneer of open education resources who co-founded Lumen Learning , a for-profit company that supports OER efforts, sees one place where textbooks could actually be vanquished by openly licensed alternatives: community colleges. I think that the biggest barrier is just that people don’t know that OER exists.

OER 137

OER Company Software Accessibility 137

Iterating Toward Openness

AUGUST 10, 2016

Because I can’t stop thinking about open, I’ve been pondering the relationship between solar power and OER. ”, “How can you sell OER if they’re free? ”, “How can you sell OER if they’re free?”, ”, and “If OER are free, why would anyone pay you?”

OER 60

OER Company Learning Analytics Outcomes 60

Iterating Toward Openness

APRIL 25, 2019

I spend most of my time doing fairly tactical thinking and working focused on moving OER adoption forward in the US higher education space. In this vision of the world, OER replace traditionally copyrighted, expensive textbooks for all primary, secondary, and post-secondary courses. My end goal isn’t to increase OER adoption.

OER 73

OER Course Company Smartphone 73

Edsurge

JUNE 22, 2017

And that’s been the driver behind nonprofit Achieving the Dream ’s (ATD) OER Degree Initiative , where 38 U.S. community colleges are creating full degree programs that utilize open educational resources (OER) from start to finish.

OER 110

OER Course Outcomes Report 110

Edsurge

JUNE 18, 2020

But OER advocates think open access course materials hold another kind of promise for students, too. They can with OER materials. Contrast doing something and revising quickly with a textbook company that spends seven years to devise a textbook and hopes to hell that it works.” It’s totally within our capability to do it.”

Course 185

Course OER Resources Education 185

Edsurge

APRIL 20, 2017

Open Educational Resources (OER) have yet to cozy up with the more orthodox academics and pushy print publishers of the world. The most recent example occurred this week, when OER company Lumen Learning announced a partnership with one of the country’s largest textbook distributors, Follet Corporation.

OER 85

OER LMS Company Course 85

Edsurge

MARCH 28, 2018

Today, Anagnoson’s online course is embedded into a Water Systems Technology zero-cost textbook degree program, or Z-degree. The initiative intends to create degree pathways with courses that only use open educational resources, known as OER, so students don’t have to spend money on class materials. But small kinks have cropped up.

OER 88

OER Industry Course Guidelines 88

Digital Promise

NOVEMBER 6, 2014

In schools all over the nation, “technology coaches” are being hired, “technology workshops” are being held, and classrooms are getting “flipped” and “blended.” Technology was only a tool to make what they were trying to do more efficient and more effective.

Technology 267

Technology OER Flipped Classroom Learning 267

Edsurge

JANUARY 9, 2018

One crucial part of the decision is out of the students’ hands, of course, since it is the professor who decides what textbook or material to assign—or whether to skip commercial textbooks altogether and assign a free or low-cost open educational resource, or OER. He tends to buy used textbooks because they are cheaper. a semester.

Company 139

Company OER Course Libraries 139

Doug Levin

MAY 16, 2016

I said my piece in the updated article that spurred my original comment (including that the service the company in question provides looks “interesting and valuable,” especially in the context of the K-12 assessment market). The Pro-OER Elephant Test. Open is the New Green.

OER 170

OER Software Company Twitter 170

Edsurge

AUGUST 24, 2020

As countless educators around the world have scrambled to figure out how to deliver lessons remotely with whisker-thin budgets, many turned to open education resources (OER). CK-12 is at the forefront of OER by doing adaptive and personalized learning. And the technology. More people should be doing it the way they are.”

OER 199

OER EdTech Exercises Resources 199

Iterating Toward Openness

APRIL 29, 2016

Earlier this week I read an op-ed – sponsored by Pearson – titled “If OER is the answer, what is the question?” OER often shine in their variety and ability to deepen resources for niche topics. ” The article poses three questions and answers them. Below I share some thoughts prompted by the article.

OER 60

OER Instructional Materials Pearson Resources 60

Edsurge

SEPTEMBER 12, 2016

Those in the puppy camp argued, with good reason, that free curricula and OER content were hardly free once the related costs and risks were factored in. So the discovery, vetting, and alignment costs inflicted upon the teachers and districts that would try to embrace free and OER content would remain high.

OER 60

OER EdTech Common Core Company 60

Edsurge

NOVEMBER 24, 2021

We know that college students’ tastes for digital services have the power to make companies snap to attention. The service can distribute open educational resources, or OER, textbooks that are available to professors and students for free. But what about campus bookstores, which are often tied more intimately to colleges?

OER 156

OER Chegg Course Exercises 156

Edsurge

OCTOBER 30, 2019

At that time, the company only offered math materials for grades three to six. The startup’s origins trace back to Stanford University, where Yavne and Yael Haramaty, Tailor-ED's co-founder and chief technology officer, met as students in spring 2017. Tailor-ED graduated from the Y Combinator startup accelerator earlier this year.

OER 99

OER Exercises Analysis Groups 99

Edsurge

MAY 6, 2019

In the second eye-raising deal for the higher-ed publishing industry in as many weeks, Wiley, a major textbook publisher, has agreed to acquire the assets of Knewton, a provider of digital courseware and adaptive-learning technologies. The New York City-based company has raised more than $180 million in investment capital.

Knewton 142

Knewton OER Industry Adaptive Learning 142

Edsurge

JANUARY 25, 2019

We talked about financial challenges facing schools, mergers and closures, cutting-edge technology, personalization and more. You also see partnerships between institutions and companies. A number of companies, including, Walmart, Lowes and Disney, have announced partnerships with universities. So how did their predictions fare?

OER 126

OER Trends Course Technology 126

Edsurge

AUGUST 5, 2017

Many professors are still skeptical about utilizing smart phones in the classroom, but I believe we could get more professors on-board if entrepreneurs better understood the challenges and resistance faculty face to use mobile technologies. But companies might not be attuned enough to how the user experience shifts from one device to another.

Mobility 85

Mobility OER Technology BYOD 85

Edsurge

NOVEMBER 30, 2017

Knewton drew heaps of hype and investment by promising to provide artificial-intelligence technology to major textbook companies to make their content more adaptive. Now the company has pivoted, and it is poised to formally announce its own online courseware that will compete head-to-head with those publishing giants.

Knewton 116

Knewton Strategy OER Pearson 116

Edsurge

OCTOBER 24, 2019

And some credit it for helping kick-start a trend—now known as open educational resources, or OER—that has sent shockwaves through the traditional publishing industry. Some professors have aesthetic objections to OER materials. By the nonprofit’s estimates, more than half of U.S. colleges use at least one. Because most U.S.

Industry 106

Industry OER Course Company 106

Tom Murray

JUNE 3, 2016

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Andy Marcinek , Chief Open Education Advisor at the US Department of Education (ED), to explore how schools can benefit from Open Educational Resources (OERs) and what is being done in this area nationwide. Office of Education Technology’s GoOpen Site. Understand State Open Work.

OER 100

OER Future Ready Edmodo Education 100

The Thinking Stick

JANUARY 18, 2024

Which states and nations are willing to take this new technology head-on and which are going to be more cautious in their recommendations. Growing up on a farm, having a brother who still farms and owning a real estate investing company also probably has something to do with it. This guidance is just the beginning.

OER 67

OER UDL Training Industry 67

The Web20Classroom

APRIL 18, 2016

It's representatives from the cake batter company. Using resources that require a specific piece of technology or can only be used in one particular way only serves to stifle an educator's ability to innovate in their classroom. This short video does a great job of explaining why OER matters. Then a knock at the door.

OER 100

OER Resources Education Examples 100

Bryan Alexander

MAY 13, 2016

For example, community college adoption of OER depends on the behavior of institutions that most of their students transfer to. Another: individual faculty are often caught between publishers (so far, everyone here hates sales reps) and their tenure/hiring/promotion/review companies (strong sense of long-serving profs as obstacles).

OER 40

OER Elsevier Secondary Pearson 40

Doug Levin

APRIL 23, 2017

Among them, I’ve updated my site to include a dedicated FAQ on open educational resources (OER). The FAQ is a collaboration of many involved with the movement and includes an OER infographic , suitable for downloading and re-sharing. My thanks to EdSurge for highlighting its availability. Strong opinions may be weakly held.

EdTech 170

EdTech OER E-rate Microsoft 170

Bryan Alexander

MAY 13, 2016

For example, community college adoption of OER depends on the behavior of institutions that most of their students transfer to. Another: individual faculty are often caught between publishers (so far, everyone here hates sales reps) and their tenure/hiring/promotion/review companies (strong sense of long-serving profs as obstacles).

OER 40

OER Elsevier Secondary Pearson 40

Edsurge

JULY 15, 2019

The biggest education company in the world is moving away from a production model that has been one of the main drivers in the rising cost of textbooks. The average price for a Pearson digital textbook subscription for a semester is $40, according to the company. But the company is not cutting the cord with print. “We

Pearson 166

Pearson OER Company Knewton 166

Edsurge

JANUARY 22, 2020

Last week, Pearson announced it paid $25 million to acquire Smart Sparrow’s technology, in a move that the publisher says will bolster the digital infrastructure that will soon support all its future higher-education offerings. The following year, Knewton was bought in a deal that has become a poster child for education technology hype.

Pearson 100

Pearson Adaptive Learning Knewton OER 100

Doug Levin

APRIL 23, 2017

Among them, I’ve updated my site to include a dedicated FAQ on open educational resources (OER). The FAQ is a collaboration of many involved with the movement and includes an OER infographic , suitable for downloading and re-sharing. My thanks to EdSurge for highlighting its availability. Strong opinions may be weakly held.

EdTech 150

EdTech OER E-rate Microsoft 150

Edsurge

MAY 26, 2020

The term comes from the physical devices that other companies used to sell, where students literally pressed buttons to respond to multiple-choice questions. The Toronto-based company once relied on textbook publishers to distribute its technology. To date, the company has raised $105 million in venture capital.

Knewton 132

Knewton Company OER Pearson 132

Edsurge

SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

In conversations with edtech investors, some reported that the K-12 market has seen an influx of instructional content, particularly in the form of open educational resources (OERs). OERs are openly-licensed educational materials that can be downloaded, modified and shared with others to help support student learning.

OER 86

OER Data Tools Trends 86