Slide 1: Title 

Welcome to my pitch on Open Textbooks! First, a little about what OER is. 

Slide 2: What is OER?

A working definition: 

OER stands for open educational resources. That means teaching materials that are either in the public domain or released under a license that allows them to be freely used, changed and shared.OER can be a complete lesson plan or a complete online course.  

Why the demand increasing: 

Teachers need common core content.  New digital and print material can be inexpensive plus online content is easy to share.  

Should we have concerns over OER: 

Standard for student data privacy may vary so you want to be heads up to that. Some districts lack training on how to choose high quality material. 

Slide 3: Examples of OER

Here are some good examples of open education which I think is a great place to get started when looking for or wanting to create open resources. EdTEch books is a great platform for open textbooks. 

Slide 4: 5 R’s 

In order for something to qualify as open, it must comply with the 5 R’s.  

Retain: Control copy of resources

Reuse: Use the new version publicly

Revise: Edit and adapt the original

Remix: Mix the original content with other material

Redistribute: Share copies with others 

Slide 5: Open Licenses

An open license lets you retain ownership of your work, while allowing others to use, share, and remix it, without requesting your permission. For most open licenses, all that is required of the users is to attribute you for your work. 

Slide 6: What is an open textbook?

The use of open textbooks in universities is, according to some organizations, changing the higher education landscape and is promising for the mainstream adoption of OER.  Open textbooks (OT) are part of the broader open educational resources (OER) movement.  

“An open textbooks is a textbook licensed under an open copyright license and made available online to be freely used by students, teachers and members of the public.  Many open textbooks are distributed in either print, e-book, or audio formats that may be downloaded or purchased at little or no cost.” 

Slide 7: Purpose 

The purpose of open textbooks is education and therefore knowledge is organized to facilitate the user’s learning but the incentives to create open textbooks go beyond making the subject matter more affordable for students.  

E.g., to make the textbooks available for a broader community and to provide creators and adaptors with the ability to reuse, remix and redistribute the material in order to customize it for their courses. 

Slide 8: OER vs. Traditional 

What is the difference between OER and Traditional textbooks?

Slide 9: Cost Savings 

Students can save hundreds of dollars every year on textbook costs with open replacements because they are able to use the materials without cost. 

Slide 10: Benefits: Learners

Here are some benefits for learners when using open textbooks 

Slide 11: Benefits: Instructors

Here are some benefits for instructors if they use open textbooks 

Slide 12: Future 

OER promotes a future in which instructors and students have free access to a wide range of excellent educational resources that have been generated, vetted, and shared cooperatively across institutions. a time when it is simple to modify instructional materials to fit the needs of various students and the setting of various courses. a time when the cost of creation, use, and upkeep is significantly cheaper than the escalating price of textbooks and other educational supplies today.