User-Generated Content in Education/OER Commons

OER Commons

"Research has shown that access to high quality, adaptable resources provides the flexibility needed for educators to develop innovative, localized content as well as pedagogical practices that are more collaborative and peer-based" (McLaughlin, 2011).

OER fulfills this need. As the physical place of education has evolved, moving from brick and mortar buildings to an access anywhere online delivery, so has the concept of content. Once the stronghold of publishing giants, now information is available online, for free.

"There simply is not enough higher education," says John DeGoioa, the president of Georgetown University, "and we will never be able to close the gap through the kinds of infrastructure that have defined our past. Globalization demands that we "leapfrog" to the creative development of new infrastructure and the creative use of new technologies."

That is where OER Commons comes in, providing free resources for all levels of education. The ability for all people to be active learners throughout their lives is now a possibility.

OER Commons

Open Educational Resources

OER Commons is a project of ISKME (Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education) http://www.iskme.org.

This book is an overview of OER Commons which provides free online educational resources. The resources range from K-12 to college level courses. The information is searchable by grade level and by subject level.

Searching

OER Commons is searchable by subject level, grade level and conditions of use.

Subject level choices:

Arts	Business
Humanities	Mathematics and Statistics
Science and Technology	Social Science

Grade level choices

Primary

Secondary

Post-Secondary

Conditions of use

No strings attached	Remix and share
Share only	Read the fine print

Sharing

OER Commons offers mutual sharing: the ability to add sites to the OER collection as well as the ability to use a variety of sharing tools such as Diigo.

The Bookmark Button

You can drag this button to your favorites bar. If you want to add an OER resource on the web, you can click that bookmark link to submit.

There are a large number of places (over 233 at this point) to download and share the information found on OER, such as

(233 more choices)

Twitter provides another avenue to access OER Commons.

Organizing

Once you create an account in OER Commons, the ability to organize your information becomes available. Folders for published items, submitted items, and draft items are the defaults. You have the ability to create your own folders as well. Your profile shows your contributions to the resource.

OER Commons provides resources organized for easy access. For example, the GREEN resource section is devoted to environmental education.

Other recommended resources are highlighted, such as Common Core Reference Collection, General Ed and Pre-College Courses, Open Textbooks, Career and Technical Educations, Classroom Management, and Science as Inquiry.

OER also offers a section that is organized by the content providers, allowing users to go directly to the type of information they seek quickly and easily.

Contact Info

For more information about this book, send an email to kirsten.zelenky@live.wilkes.edu.

External Links

• http://www.iskme.org/ for information about the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education.
• http://www.oercommons.org/ for information about OER Commons
• http://cnx.org/content/col10468/latest/ for a how-to guide to using OER
• http://www.collegeopentextbooks.org/blog/uncategorized/oer-commons-an-education-ecosystem-using-knowledge-sharing/