THE CTE QUARTERLY | Issue 8
OER Spotlight
What Does “ OER ” Stand For ?
By Sarah Paige
Fall 2020 brings a lot of challenges for EFSC faculty , but one of them doesn ’ t have to include thinking about what “ OER ” means .
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition ( SPARC ) is a global entity working on access to teaching resources . It has created a definition of “ OER ” that is widely used and respected .
“ OER ” stands for “ Open Educational Resources ” – that is , resources for teaching , learning , and research that can include materials like textbooks , videos , images , labs , music , and other instructional resources .
OERs , as defined , are also free of both cost and access barriers . This means that there are no charges to purchase or use an OER , and it is freely available on the open web .
By their nature , OERs are created with the legal usage permissions imbued within them . The giving of legal permission within the resource allows for easier reuse by faculty and librarians .
Generally , this permission is granted through an open license ( for example , a Creative Commons license ), which allows anyone to freely use , adapt , and share the resource . A closed license , on the other hand , restricts your use of the resource and requires you to ask the owner for permission to reuse it ( there ’ s a great graphic , displayed within an Instructure-Canvas course , that shows the differences between these two kinds of resource licenses ).
Open licenses typically mention the five Rs : Retain , Reuse , Revise , Remix , and Redistribute . ( The idea of the five Rs was codified by the folks at Creative Commons and at
opencontent . org .) These five actions help make OERs accessible , easy to reuse , and easy to modify .
Hopefully this short blurb clears up any questions as to what “ OER ” stands for . If not , reach out to any member of the OER Workgroup , part of the Online Learning Steering Committee here at EFSC . Co-Chairs of the OER Workgroup are Sarah Paige (
paiges @ easternflorida . edu ) and Marian Smith (
smithma @ easternflorida . edu ).
The main pieces of this definition come from the SPARC website , accessed in September 2020
Instructure graphic : Created by Boyoung Chae , Ph . D ., Policy Associate , Open Education and eLearning , Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges , no date given , with a CC Attribution license attached .
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For AT & T , students and teachers are eligible to call and request a discount . They can save up to $ 20 a month on home Internet !
Minority Male Initiative ( MMI )
By Ervin C . Jackson , Ph . D . ( AKA Dr . J )
Recently , we have had to respond to several crises . The pandemic crisis required us to all make significant changes in a very short amount of time , and we did it successfully . Also , during this period of change and readjustment , our nation has been challenged with various perspectives about equal justice and systemic race issues that have produced protests in the U . S . and throughout the world . In view of these crises , I feel compelled to say that it ’ s great to be associated with a school that has been making efforts to address the systemic issues connected with minority barriers . Many organizations attempt to deny the fact that systemic barriers exist , but EFSC has been realistic in examining the numbers and in letting them not only speak , but also in acting on them . I ’ m blessed to serve on the Diversity Committee , the Minority Male Initiative , and the Center for Teaching Excellence , which make efforts to increase minority male retention , to educate faculty and staff about best practices for reducing barriers to increase the retention of minority students , and to assist in the recruitment of a proportionately diverse faculty and staff so that we lead in academic excellence as it pertains to every group . I know we still have much to do and more room to grow , but I believe that our EFSC team has the right spirit to get the job done .
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