As advocates of OER, we strive to save our students money while remixing/collaborating to generate and use high quality materials licensed under Creative Commons. There remain, however, many educators that are intimidated and mystified by the concept of "open" even if they find the potential benefits appealing. Additionally, when asked if they use OER, many faculty will say "yes," even if there is quite a bit of confusion about what is and isn't actually "open." For example, many instructors link to web content or use materials located online without a second thought, usually presuming that "fair use" will cover their use. It might, of course, but with increased digital sharing the primacy of legal and ethical use of materials is clear.
In order to embed open remixing into institutional culture across a district, the Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction funded the development of an OER MOOC workshop designed to encourage faculty to get open by introducing them to the philosophy, efficacy, licensing, use, remixing, and sharing of open resources. For two years now, faculty across the Maricopa Community College District (and beyond) have benefited from this online workshop as well as any of several face-to-face seminars introducing them to the philosophical, legal, and practical applications of openness. With over a hundred participants throughout the district and across the world, the online workshop has proven to be a meaningful, open-ended resource for educators and administrators interested in learning the basics of OER.
This presentation will introduce participants to this customizable tool, which they may take with them and make their own in order to encourage faculty in their own institutions to embrace open resources.
