Want to Increase Equity in Your Instruction? Look to OER.

Credit: Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages CC-BY-NC 4.0

Conversations about the importance of equity in education aren't new. They have been around as long as our educational institutions have been in place. As educators, it is our job to find a balance between meeting the requirements of the standards that guide our instruction and creating instructional experiences that actively engage our students and speak to every one of them on a personal level. When we can do this, we create learning environments that are equitable, engaging, and academically rigorous.

But how do we get there?

If you want to increase equity in your instruction, look to Open Educational Resources (OER). The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation defines OER as "teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium - digital or otherwise - that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation, and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions." What that means is that you can utilize OER freely and modify and share them to meet the needs of your students without worrying about violating copyright law, receiving a cease and desist from a publisher, or having to comb through a ton of legal jargon to try to understand the terms of use and permission! You can just focus on doing what you do best: helping students succeed.

Isn't OER just the latest education fad in the United States?

Far from it. In fact, the open education movement is a global one. The first World OER Congress was held in 2012, resulting in the UNESCO 2012 Paris OER Declaration, which urged governments to promote the use of OER, and called for publicly-funded educational materials to be released in a freely reusable form. Educators all over the world have engaged in open educational practices in an effort to lower the costs associated with education, to increase access to instructional materials, and to make education more equitable.

Since then, numerous organizations have recognized the value that OER bring to education. One of the most recent recommendations for the use of OER came in December 2022 from The Carnegie Corporation. In their report, "K-12 Science Education in the United States: A landscape study for improving the field," the authors make several recommendations for improving science education. In an effort to ensure that educators have access to high-quality instructional materials, they authors state, "States and districts should increasingly allow for the adoption of open educational resources (OER), which some states already do, in addition to instructional materials created by commercial publishers. They should also increase flexibility in how budgets for instructional materials can be spent, allowing districts and schools to purchase commercial products (e.g., print materials and consumable and nonconsumable supplies) associated with standards-aligned OER materials."

How do we get started?

One of the easiest ways to get started in using OER is to visit OER Commons, a freely accessible online library full of instructional materials that you can use and share. OER Commons is powered by ISKME, the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, who's aim is to grow a sustainable culture of sharing and continuous improvement among educators at all levels.

When you create your free account, be sure to search for and join the Westmoreland IU group. This connects you with educators across Westmoreland County. It also automatically makes you a member of the PAIU Hub, created by the Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units (PAIU). This Hub is a central location for educators across the Commonwealth to help facilitate the implementation of OER in classrooms, collaborate on statewide projects such as the PA STEM Toolkit, engage in professional learning opportunities, and see the trends around what resources Pennsylvania educators are looking to utilize in their classrooms.

As Gina Loveless, Educational Technology Consultant with the Michigan Department of Education, recently said in a webinar hosted by the #GoOpen Network called "Share the Love: OER and Peer Mentoring," "OER people love to share! Don't be afraid to reach out to this community!" We are here to help you get started.