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William & Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation

Open Educational Resources (OER) in the K-12 Curriculum: Overcoming Obstacles to OER


Introduction

Open Educational Resources (OER) — instructional materials that are free to access, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute – have gained significant attention in recent years. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Education launched the #GoOpen campaign, which encourages the use of open educational resources in schools throughout the country. Twenty states and 114 school districts have committed to moving towards openly licensed educational resources. These state and district initiatives have clearly gained momentum. In a recent survey of K-12 Instructional Technology leaders, nearly 80% of respondents indicated that OER was a part of their district’s digital content strategy.[1] While many schools and districts use OER to supplement purchased curricular materials, a growing number are moving towards OER as a replacement. The Babson Survey Research Group reported that 37% of districts surveyed considered adopting at least one full-course OER curriculum, and 16% reported already doing so.[2]

While potential cost-savings and curricular flexibility are likely key factors behind this trend, schools and districts need to be aware of, and prepared to address, the challenges they will encounter in leveraging these materials. This guide for school and district leaders summarizes the potential benefits of OER, describes challenges associated with transitioning to these resources, and suggests strategies to overcome these obstacles. To conclude, this guide provides a checklist of essential questions that school and district teams should consider when planning their OER initiative.

Potential Benefits

Beyond the appeal of low-to-no-cost instructional materials, OER offers other potential advantages over traditional resources. Students benefit from having access to relevant and high-quality curriculum materials, regardless of their location, socio-economic status, or school enrollment. Their teachers are able to modify and customize the curriculum to better meet their needs, interests, and learning preferences. School and district leaders are able to better align resources with local standards and initiatives, and to reallocate resources for teacher training and infrastructure needs. The following summary of OER benefits is adapted from the International Association for K-12 Online Learning OER guide for state and school leaders:[4]

  • Collaboration and Partnerships. OER initiatives can provide a foundation for school, district, and state partnerships, as well as opportunities for collaborations between classrooms.
  • Knowledge Sharing and Access. OER enables teachers to share their knowledge with their colleagues, and provides improved student access to quality material within and beyond the classroom.
  • Cost Savings and Efficiency. OER can reduce money spent on reoccurring costs for textbooks or supplementary materials, while also saving time spent in securing permission for their use.
  • Quality Improvements. The ability to continuously update and evaluate OER can improve the quality of materials over time, ensuring that materials are always relevant, accurate, and effective.
  • Independence and Personalization. The variety and accessibility of OER helps teachers address students’ individual needs and interests, and provides students opportunities to learn independently.

Concrete examples of these benefits can be found across the country. John Coe, a veteran science teacher from North Lake Middle School in Lake Stevens, Washington, said, “…we can edit down
the sections of text quickly. We can create leveled readings [that] help solve some of the differences in reading levels … and give relevance to the text.”[5] Since North Lake Middle School started using individualized OER, the scores of their 8th-grade students on state assessments have been 10% to 15% higher than those in neighboring districts. Teachers in the Putnam City Schools, in Oklahoma, use OER to write all curriculum content and align it to state standards. They create “textbooks” with interactive elements and local topics and content. It has added up to significant savings for the district.[6]

 

  1. Maylahn, P. (2017). K-12 IT Leadership Survey Report (pp. 1–34).
  2. Allen, I. E. S. J. (2014). Opening the Curriculum: Open Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2014. Babson Survey Research Group.
  3. UNESCO. (2002). UNESCO promotes new initiative for free educational resources on the Internet. Retrieved April from http://www.unesco.org/education/news_en/080702_free_edu_ress.shtml
  4. Bliss, T. J., Tonks, D., & Patrick, S. (2013). Open Educational Resources and Collaborative Content Development: (pp. 1–19).
  5. Watkins, D. (2016). Textbook of the future: Free, open, remixable. Retrieved from https://opensource.com/education/16/1/ck-12-open-education-resources
  6. Bendici, R. (2017). Schools bridge the digital divide. Retrieved from https://www.districtadministration.com/article/schools-bridge-digital-divide

 

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Projects

North Carolina Digital-Age Learning Initiative

The NC Digital-Age Learning Initiative builds upon the existing foundation of digital learning initiatives to develop a coherent long-term strategy that sets directions and priorities, supports innovation, and provides resources to enable the State’s educators and students to benefit fully from digital-age teaching and learning.

Published

March 3, 2021

Resource Type

Report

Published By

Friday Institute for Educational Innovation