OER

I hadn't heard of OER (Open Educational Resources) until I received an email from someone recommending I attend a webinar about using OER for Spanish classes.  I attended the webinar but felt like this concept of sharing resources was too out there for me.  

If you aren't familiar with this concept, the idea is that resources are shared.  Instead of requiring students to purchase a textbook (or digital curriculum access) I link resources from my Canvas class.  They can access these materials for free.  Instead of requiring them to "pay to do their homework" (quotation from a student who wasn't a fan of purchasing access to digital curriculum) they can access the materials on my Canvas page for free.

I tend to be cautious when I hear about new things.  I had the following concerns:  who ensures the validity of these resources?  What if I link to a resource and it's taken down the next day?  What would the students use to learn the concept?  This is lots of responsibility.  If Cengage provides a text for my class, I'm trusting that they've done the heavy lifting to be sure I don't leave anything out.

While these concerns are valid, I learned a lot during the COVID-19 move online and I realized that at the end of the day I know a lot more about teaching concepts than I gave myself credit for.  

I was in a situation in which a face to face class had to move online.  Of the students in the class, none had digital access to the curriculum we were using (because they chose not to purchase it).  A quarter had a physical textbook, a quarter had an ebook and half had no access to the text.  (They had been sharing but wouldn't be able to do that from remote locations).

I had to make a decision about curriculum.  I received an email from McGraw-Hill offering free access to students if I used their product.  I had already chosen to begin using this product in the fall so I chose to jump in and begin using it.  I thought I was a hero to provide a free resource to teach the information, but I found that the students didn't share my enthusiasm.  I'm not sure where exactly the break downs were but I ended up removing the last week of activities and adding a culture project instead.  Granted, it was a unique circumstance so I don't want to analyze it too thoroughly, but I realized that this product wasn't the end-all be-all that I thought it would be.  In hindsight, I think I would have been better served to shop around other products and see which would have been the best fit for our situation.

OER could have been a great fit, but at the time I was panicked.  I had to get everything ready very quickly and my internet access at home isn't great.  I did what I could with the information I had and the circumstance in which I found myself.

Now that some time has passed, I'm rethinking OER.  I'm starting to see all the benefits it could offer my students:  less cost, more freedom for me to design classes and create materials that best serve my students.  I want to be a part of it.  

And so begins my journey.