May 24, 2016

What if there was a vast resource of online educational materials available to students and faculty for free? And what if instructors had the ability to adapt and reuse many of those materials to meet the particular needs of their students? It might sound too good to be true, but Open Educational Resources (OER) are a rapidly growing trend in the world of higher education. Two free hour-long webinars will be held in May 2016 for anyone in the Drexel Community that is interested. The first webinar will explain what OER is and how to begin locating and using these materials. The second webinar will explore examples and best practices for leveraging OER in your classes.

OER Webinar I (Tuesday, May 24, 11 a.m.–12 p.m, EDT)

The first webinar will serve as an introduction to Open Educational Resources (OER). It will include the following topics:

• A definition of OER and the history of its development and uses
• Examples of OER success stories
• Advantages of OER
• Barriers to the use of OER
• Research on the effectiveness and value of OER
• Question and Answers from the audience

Take Post-Webinar 1 Survey

Watch the archive of Part I of our presentation on OER

OER Webinar II (Tuesday, May 31, 11 AM – Noon, EDT)

The second webinar will focus on the practical application of Open Educational Resources in the classroom and in research. Topics will include:

• Examples of OER in use in a currently taught online course
• Best practices when in evaluating OER materials, including how to vet for currency and accuracy, usability of navigation, and accessibility of content.
• A step by step scenario in which a faculty member identifies and implements OER resources
• Best practices for creating your own OER materials
• Questions and answers from the audience 

Take Post-Webinar 2 Survey 

Watch the archive of Part II of our presentation on OER