Teaching with Open Educational Resources

In graduate education, where specialized textbooks can cost hundreds of dollars, the financial burden on students is a significant barrier to equitable learning. Teaching with Open Educational Resources (OER) directly addresses this by replacing commercial materials with free, openly licensed alternatives. More than just a cost-saving measure, OER empowers you, as a graduate instructor or teaching assistant, to actively shape your curriculum by customizing content to fit your specific pedagogical goals and research context, fostering a more dynamic and accessible academic environment.

Defining OER and the "5R" Permissions

At its core, Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license. What distinguishes them from simply "free" online content is the set of legal permissions granted by their license, commonly summarized as the 5R Framework. This framework is the operational heart of OER, granting you specific rights to:

1. Retain: Make and own a permanent copy of the resource (e.g., download a textbook PDF to your device).
2. Reuse: Use the resource in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, a workshop, or on a website).
3. Revise: Adapt, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., update statistics, translate material, or remove a chapter).
4. Remix: Combine the original or revised resource with other open content to create something new (e.g., blend sections from three open textbooks to create a custom course pack).
5. Redistribute: Share your copies of the original, revised, or remixed resource with others (e.g., post your adapted version on a course site).

Common open licenses, such as those from Creative Commons, standardize these permissions. Understanding these licenses is your first step, as they tell you exactly what you can do with a resource without needing to seek permission from the copyright holder.

Adopting and Integrating Existing OER

The most straightforward entry point is OER adoption, where you replace a commercial textbook or set of readings with an existing open alternative. This action alone achieves the primary benefit of reducing student costs. For graduate seminars, this might mean selecting an open-access scholarly monograph or curating a reading list from articles in open-access journals.

The process involves strategic discovery and evaluation. Major repositories like the Open Textbook Library, Mason OER Metafinder (MOM), and discipline-specific hubs (e.g., MERLOT, OpenStax) are essential starting points. When evaluating an OER textbook, you must assess it with the same rigor as a commercial text: check for accuracy, relevance to your learning objectives, and production quality. The key advantage is that if a resource is 80% perfect, the 5R permissions allow you to revise it to reach 100% suitability for your course.

Creating and Remixing Your Own Open Materials

As a graduate instructor, you are often at the frontier of your field. Creating open course materials allows you to fill gaps where suitable OER may not yet exist. This could involve authoring a case study, recording a mini-lecture on a niche methodology, or developing a problem set with detailed solutions. By licensing these creations openly, you contribute directly to the scholarly commons and enhance your teaching portfolio.

The power of OER is fully realized in remixing. Imagine constructing a weekly module that combines your own explanatory notes, a chapter from an open textbook, an openly licensed simulation, and a publicly available primary source document. This curated, contextualized resource is precisely tailored to your syllabus and student needs. This customization of materials moves beyond a one-size-fits-all model, allowing you to present diverse perspectives and directly align materials with your research expertise.

Contributing to Sustainability and Open Pedagogy

The OER ecosystem thrives on participation. Contributing to OER repositories by sharing your original or remixed work ensures its longevity and usefulness to colleagues worldwide. This peer contribution model is a form of academic citizenship that values collaboration over competition.

Furthermore, OER enables a shift toward open pedagogy, where students transition from passive consumers to active contributors of knowledge. A graduate-level example could involve students revising and expanding an existing OER wiki on your subject, or publishing their polished seminar papers under an open license as potential future course materials. This approach not only increases equitable access to knowledge but also engages students in the very processes of knowledge creation and dissemination that define graduate research.

Common Pitfalls

1. Confusing "Free" with "Open": Using a website or PDF that is freely accessible online but lacks an open license is risky. You likely do not have the legal right to revise or redistribute that material. Always verify the license (e.g., a Creative Commons CC BY license) to confirm the 5R permissions.
2. Overlooking License Compatibility When Remixing: If you combine resources under different open licenses, you must ensure they are compatible. For instance, a resource licensed under "CC BY-SA" (ShareAlike) requires your new remix to carry the same SA license, which may conflict with other materials. Plan your remix by checking license terms first.
3. Neglecting Accessibility and Format: An open license does not automatically mean the resource is accessible to learners with disabilities. When adopting or creating OER, ensure materials follow accessibility best practices (e.g., providing alt-text for images, using structured headings, offering editable file formats like .docx in addition to PDFs).
4. Assuming Lower Quality: A common misconception is that free resources are inferior. While quality varies, many OER are developed through rigorous peer-review processes similar to traditional textbooks. Your role as an educator is to apply critical selection criteria, just as you would with any academic material.

Summary

• Open Educational Resources (OER) are free teaching materials defined by the 5R permissions (Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix, Redistribute), enabled by standard open licenses like Creative Commons.
• Adopting OER textbooks immediately lowers financial barriers for students, promoting greater equitable access to knowledge in graduate education.
• The true transformative potential lies in revising and remixing OER, allowing you to customize materials perfectly aligned with your course objectives and research expertise.
• Creating and contributing your own open materials enriches the academic commons, supports colleagues, and can engage students in open pedagogy practices.
• Successful use requires careful attention to licensing details, a commitment to evaluating quality, and a focus on ensuring the resources are accessible to all learners.