Statement of PurposeNeed for InstructionRecently, many states have adopted regulations to increase the use of OERs because it saves money and is more flexible for re-using, re-mixing, and sharing. In 2012, Washington State took one of the first steps in addressing OERs in by passing House Bill 2337 also known as the OER K-12 bill, to develop a library of openly licensed courseware for grades K-12 (House Bill 2337, 2012). In California, the California Open Educational Resources Council was established to find or develop open educational resources for fifty undergraduate courses in order to decrease college textbook spending (Senate Bill 1052, 2012). Likewise, in K-12 education recently, eleven states have joined together in an intiative called K-12 OER Collaborative to seek proposals to create extensive open educational resources that align with state standards.
Although there are some educational and legislative trends towards open education, there is also a general lack of awareness among teachers of what exactly are OERs and understanding the flexibility of its open licenses (Creelman, & Ossiannilsson, 2012). In the following, I will summarize examples of studies on OERs and explain its implications for my project. |