This is a short presentation created on November 19, 2021 for an assignment regarding OER resources. I teaching English to speakers of other languages, so I included my perspective of OER for English language learning instructors.
1. David
Dorratcague
OER IN THE ELL
CLASSROOM
Benefits & Challenges
ddorratcague@cascadia.edu
licensed under CC BY 4.0
2. WOODGROVE
BANK
Benefits
• Cost to Students
• EfficientCourse Prep
• Student Retention of Knowledge
• Professional Development
• Social Responsibility
Challenges
• Limited Resources: Few “Goldlilocks”
Courses
• Limited Resources: ‘Jigsawing’ a Course
• Heavy Workload to OER-ify a Course
• Fear: Non-Revocable CC Licenses
• Fear: Inferiority Complex of One’sWork
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4. WOODGROVE
BANK
BENEFITS
Cost to Students
• Like many student populations,
some English language learners
struggle financially.Offering free
course content removes barriers
to learning and levels the playing
field.
• Offering free course content is a
positive step toward diversity,
equity, and inclusion.
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5. WOODGROVE
BANK
BENEFITS
EfficientCourse Prep
• Instructors who find appropriate
OER content do not need to build
a course from scratch. Replacing a
few spokes is easier than
reinventing the wheel.
• Adopting or adapting an OER
course saves instructors time to
focus on their students, teaching,
learning, and assessment.
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6. WOODGROVE
BANK
BENEFITS
Student Retention
of Knowledge
• Most colleges mandate a closing
date for courses, but students
have a link to the OER version of
the course, they can revisit and
review the content they have
learned.
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7. WOODGROVE
BANK
BENEFITS
Professional
Development
• UsingOER effectively and
responsibly requires instructors
to understand copyright,
licensing, and information
literacy.This is knowledge that
extends beyond one’s discipline
and career as an educator.
• Instructors who assign
presentations or digital content
creation can demonstrate and
teach their students about
proper use of content and media
found online.
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11. WOODGROVE
BANK
CHALLENGES
Limited Resources:
‘Jigsawing’ a Course
• With fewer completeOER
courses currently offered for
English language learning,
instructors might be dissuaded
from building their course in a
patchwork, piecemeal fashion.
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12. WOODGROVE
BANK
CHALLENGES
HeavyWorkload to
‘OER-ify’ One’s
Course
• Editing one’s course to make
sure each piece of content is
properly cited to follow
copyright and licensing rules is a
heavy, initial lift and could
dissuade instructors from
offering their courses as OER.
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13. WOODGROVE
BANK
CHALLENGES
Fear: Non-
RevocableCC
Licenses
• Some instructors might be
hesitant to offer their courses as
OER knowing that “once it’s out
there, it’s out there.” Of course,
an instructor can stop offering
the course, but copies that have
already been distributed will still
exist under the rights by which
they were attained.
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14. WOODGROVE
BANK
CHALLENGES
Fear: Inferiority
Complex of One’s
Work
• Some instructors might dismiss
the thought of offering their
curriculum as OER simply by
thinking it’s not good enough.
Hopefully such thinking is not
common, though: If the course is
good enough for their students,
it is absolutely good enough for
other instructors’ students as
well!
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15. WOODGROVE
BANK 15
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Challenges exist for OER English language learning content, but said challenges
do not outweigh the benefits to instructors, students, and learning as a whole.
Each passing year offers more ELL OER content, and the more instructors
create, share, and use ELL OER, the more exponentially ELL OER content will
grow, benefiting ELL instructors and students alike.
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