What Do Teachers Know About Open Educational Resources?Jennifer Anderson, Megan Benson, and Kristen Wotta

IntroductionOpen educational resources (OER) is a free online database for teachers to find resources for their classroom. OER was started at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2001. It is used by all teachers to help enhance their students’ learning. OER includes lesson plans, videos, online textbooks, educational games, and worksheets. Some benefits of OER are they foster pedagogical innovation and relevance that avoids teaching from the textbook, broadens use of alternatives to textbooks wile maintaining instructional quality, and lowers the cost of course materials.

Questions for survey1. Have you heard of Open Educational Resources?

A. Yes B. No

2. Where was Open Educational Resources start?A. Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyB. Winona State UniversityC. University of MinnesotaD. Yale University

3. When did Open Educational Resources start?A. 2001B. 1997C. 2005D. 2009

4. What are Open Educational Resources? (open ended question)

5. What is included in Open Educational Resources ? (open ended question)

6. Are Open Educational Resources well suited to transform teaching and learning?

A. Yes B. No

7. Open Educational Resources are only for High School teachers.

A. TrueB. False

8. How does Open Education Resources improve student learning?

A. VideosB. Educational games C. SoftwareD. All of the above

9. The use of Open Educational Resources requires membership or payment.

A. True B. False

10. What are some benefits of Open Educational Resources?A. Fosters pedagogical innovation and relevance

that avoids teaching from the textbookB. Broadens use of alternatives to textbooks

while maintaining instructional qualityC. Lowers costs of course materials for studentsD. All of the above.

FindingsWe found that most of our respondents are not familiar with Open Educational

Resources. The first chart shows that only 1 respondent had heard about OER. The second chart shows that only 1 person knows that OER was started at MIT, 1 person thought that OER was started at Yale, and 19 people don’t know where OER was started. The third chart shows that only 1 person knows that OER was started in 2001, 1 person thought it started in 2005, and 18 people don’t know when OER started.

ConclusionIn conclusion, not many

teachers know about or have ever heard of Open

Educational Resources. We feel that OER should be

taught to future teachers. This will allow classrooms in the future to benefit from

the resource.

ReferencesBaker, Judy (2007, June 20). OER Introduction. Retrieved September 11, 2009, from Connexions Web site: http://cnx.org/content/m14466/latest/

Brown, J. S. Hammond, A. & Atkins, D.E. (2007, February). OERderves. Retrieved September 9, 2009, from http://www.oerderves.org/?p=23

Jaschik, Scott. (August 29, 2009). The World is Open. Retrieved September 11, 2009. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/08/25/bonk

MethodWe surveyed approximately 25 current

and future teachers. We focused our questions on the knowledge of what these teachers already know about

Open Educational Resources.

Where did OER start?

MITYaleI don't know

When did OER start?

20012005I don't know

Have you ever heard of OER?

YesNo