Open Education 2015

This presentation will outline a model for districts and other organizations to collaborate on the creation and adoption of OER as well as professional development and teacher support.

In 2013, Minnesota's new Social Studies standards were approved. Districts needed all new curriculum for a 6th grade MN Studies course; a few of them opted to develop one themselves and the MN Partnership for Collaborative Curriculum was born. The MPCC now has over 200 districts in the state as members and we are developing 40 courses in all core content areas from grades 3-12 that will be CC licensed. The MPCC is funded by it's members to provide for new courses, content revisions and updates as well as professional development for writers and implementing teachers. There is a sustainable model in place that will allow us to move beyond the initial scope of this project and start developing electives and forming additional partnerships.

Content is gathered from existing OER, developed by course authors, partners around the state the generate educational materials such as the MN Humanities Center and from other permissioned sources such as the Southern Poverty Law Center. Courses are piloted and revised by member organizations before being made available as OER.
The transparency and flexibility of the materials are what has made this program a success. Materials are accessible in multiple learning management systems and on multiple devices. The format of the materials also allows for teachers to adopt an entire course or to pull individual units or lessons into existing course materials. We train our course authors on topics like: Mindset; Equity & Diversity; Copyright; Technical Requirements; Accessibility and Curriculum Design.