Open Education Resources: Affordable, Accessible, and Effective
Mon. Mar. 3, 2025
March 3-7, 2025 is Open Education Week! For those who don’t already know, Open Education Resources (OERs) are openly-licensed, free to use materials that exist in many different formats such as books, images, videos, audio, assignments, diagrams, lesson plans, and software.
OERs save students money; a 2020 study titled Textbook Broke: Textbook Affordability as a Social Justice Issue found that 65% of students don't buy a required textbook because of the cost. Free or low-cost materials eliminate financial barriers, increase flexibility and customization of course content, and improve learning outcomes.
Courses with No Textbook Fees
To help students avoid additional fees for textbooks and other materials, the UWSA, Registrar, and library maintain a list of UWinnipeg courses that have zero textbook costs:
Finding Open Educational Resources
UWinnipeg Library Catalogue: You can search for open textbooks by doing an advanced author search for "BC Open Textbook Project" in the library catalogue.
OASIS: A search tool from the State University of New York (SUNY) that locates OER from hundreds of university systems around the world.
Manitoba's Open Textbooks: A database of Canadian open textbook materials provided through a partnership with BCcampus.
Using and Creating Materials
Guided by principals like the 5 R's of Permission, OER allow greater flexibility in course content. Open materials can be shared, edited, and localized to suit a particular need without concern for copyright infringement. Course instructors can adopt or adapt open textbooks or create their own from existing course material.
Indigenous Knowledge: OERs that include Indigenous knowledge should be guided by principals such as Kayla Lar-Son's 6 R's of Permission: respect for cultural identity and sacred knowledge and an ongoing reciprocal relationship with the community. These OERs should legitimize and incorporate Indigenous knowledge into curriculum as necessary, recognizing that some Indigenous knowledges don't want to be shared.
Webinar: Adopt, Don't Shop!
Curious about the benefits of adopting Open Educational Resources? Faculty and staff are invited to join Brianne Selman, Scholarly Communications and Copyright Librarian, for a lunchtime introduction to finding and using OERs.
When: Wednesday, March 5, 12:30 – 1:30 pm
Where: via Teams
Questions?
The Library can help you find, understand, and work with OER. Visit the OER Guide or email Brianne Selman for more info: b.selman@uwinnipeg.ca