Teaching and Learning with

OER: What’s the Impact in a

K12 (Online) Classroom?

Dr. Beatriz de los Arcos

The Open University, UK

@celTatis

Photo: CC BY-NC https://flic.kr/p/pR2xWF

oerresearchhub.org

Open Source Software

Open Access

Open Culture

Open Educational Resources

Open Content

Open Data

Open Science

Open Research

Open Licensing

Open Textbooks

Open Courseware

Open PolicyCC BY J.Park http://www.slideshare.net/janeatcc

CC BY J.Park http://www.slideshare.net/janeatcc

Keyword Hypothesis

Performance OER improve student performance/satisfaction

Openness People use OER differently from other online materials

Access OER widen participation in education

Retention OER can help at-risk learners to finish their studies

Reflection OER use leads educators to reflect on their practice

Finance OER adoption brings financial benefits for students/institutions

Indicators Informal learners use a variety of indicators when selecting OER

Support Informal learners develop their own forms of study support

Transition OER support informal learners in moving to formal study

Policy OER use encourages institutions to change their policies

Assessment Informal assessments motivate learners using OER

OER Impact Map

http://oermap.org

Sample

Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/y59xh

K12 educators (N=571):

• 50.3% female, 49.4% male

• 85.6% face-to-face; 7.9% online; 6.4% blended

• 43.4% from US

• 68.1% speakers of English as first language

• 53.6% >10 years of teaching experience

• 52.9% Science; 33.8% Math; 26.5% Education

Photo CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/5uFCiT

types of OER?

• Videos 74.9%

• Images 65.3%

• Open textbooks 54.4%

• Lesson plans 44.3%

• Quizzes 41.7%

Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/5BZgEa

85.2% of K12 educators adapt OER to suit their needs

“The problem where I teach now is

that we have no money; my

textbooks, my Science textbooks are

20 years old, they’re so outdated,

they don’t relate to kids (...) so I pick

and pull from a lot of different places

to base my units”

“I will maybe look and find an

instructional video that’s maybe 2 or 3

minutes long that gets to the point

better than I could, and I would use it,

or I will look for lessons and if they are

for Grade 5 or Grade 3 I don’t use all

of it, I just adapt it, I take out what I

don’t want and rearrange it”

Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/o4Hice

purpose?

K12 educators use OER…

• to get new ideas and inspiration 82.4%

• to prepare for their teaching 72.3%

• to supplement existing lessons 70.6%

“Sometimes when I’m looking online I’ll find something

then I’m like that’s great, I’ll just kind of use that with my

students. But there’s other times I’ll see something

online and I’m like, that’s an interesting idea, I hadn’t

thought about it that way and sometimes I’ll take it and

modify it so it works better with my students.”

“I’ll see something

online and I think

‘That’s pretty good but

I know how to do it

better’.”

Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 marfis75 https://flic.kr/p/o4Hice

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challenges

• Finding resources of sufficient high quality 56.4%

• Finding suitable resources in my subject area 55.2%

• Not having enough time to look for suitable resources

54.1%

• Knowing where to find resources 49.1%

Sample

Sample

Photo CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/egpZmw

teaching

• ‘I use a broader range of teaching and learning

methods’ 53.8%

• ‘I have improved my skills in ICT’ 52.1%

• ‘I make use of a wider range of multimedia’ 51.6%

• ‘I reflect more on the way that I teach’ 51%

• ‘I more frequently compare my own teaching with

others’ 44.7%

“It used to be that when I thought about preparing for a lesson I

would look at a book and see what they did and I then would

kind of teach a lesson similar to it, but now I can go online watch

a video or look at somebody else’s material that they put out

there, see what they’re doing and either modify what they’re

doing and bring it into my classroom or just get a totally different

perspective on it and allow my students to get multiple

perspectives on a topic.”

Math teacher

• ‘I reflect more on the way that I

teach’ 45.5%

• ‘I more frequently compare my

own teaching with others’

45.5%

• ‘I have more up-to-date

knowledge of my subject area’

42.9%

• ‘I make use of a wider range of

multimedia’ 40.9%

• ‘I make more use of culturally

diverse resources’ 38.1%

• ‘I make more use of culturally

diverse resources’ 35.3%

• ‘I make use of a wider range of

multimedia’ 25%

• ‘I reflect more on the way that I

teach’ 23.5%

• ‘I more frequently compare my

own teaching with others’

23.5%

• ‘I have more up-to-date

knowledge of my subject area’

23.5%

Online vs Blended

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OER use in the K12 classroom…

• ‘Allows me to better accommodate diverse learners’

needs’ 51%

• ‘Develops learners’ increased independence and self-

reliance’ 48.9%

• ‘Increases learners’ satisfaction with the learning

experience’ 46.8%

• ‘Increases learners’ participation in class discussions’

46.2%

• ‘Increases learners’ experimentation with new ways of

learning’ 46.1%

“This course has been fully developed from scratch without [copyright

restrictions] and is released free on the web for any teacher or student

to use or remix. As a result, I do not treat this curriculum as

mine –it belongs to the class and to the world.”

https://sites.google.com/a/byron.k12.mn.us/stats4g/home/syllabus

Photo CC BY-NC 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/dA7Vg

“If we want OER to become the default, we need

people to use OER and to know that they are using

OER”.

TJ Bliss, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

http://tjbliss.org/the-doctor-and-the-gym/

Thank you

b.de-los-arcos@open.ac.uk

@celTatis

Photo CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/62NbiE

in service of The Open University