Ready for Open Educational Resources?

Lane faculty librarian, Jen Klaudinyi, developed a thorough guide to OER (Open Educational Resources). Not only does the guide introduce faculty to OER, it also provides resources that instructors may utilize to find existing OER as well as additional details about copyright, fair use, and options for creating their own original open educational resources. Thank you, Jen, for such a fabulous, useful tool!

By the Numbers #2

In July I took an "inventory" of DIG Co-Lab collaboration. With more faculty participating, creating, and sharing their work now, I think it is an opportune moment to take stock once again.

Inventory of the First Ten Months of Collaboration

3 terms
13 dedicated faculty members
3 departments
131 blog posts
130+ learning objects, videos, quizzes, courses and other digital resources shared
11 awards to faculty members thus far


subtotal: immeasurable professional development
total: endless, inspiring innovation!

(inspired by "The First Four Months of My Journey," a poem by Guillermo Gomez-Peña from his Warrior for Gringostroika)

Learn more bout the Digital Collaboration Faculty fellowship here, or review the project outline if you're interested in participating.

Mash-ups: More on MyOpenMath

MyOpenMath has great potential for use in developmental math classes, and it is an OER (Open Educational Resource) to boot! Learn how Julie Pfaff has used it in her ABSE classes by reading her blog post. It is possible to create courses on MyOpenMath and export them as Common Cartridge files, which can be imported to Moodle using LTI (learning tools interoperability). This allows an instructor to combine MyOpenMath content and exercises with their own instructional resources and activities in the Moodle platform. In addition, MyOpenMath exercises that are integrated into Moodle via LTI feed directly into the Moodle gradebook for seamless integration of MyOpenMath content within a Moodle shell.

David Lippman, creator of MyOpenMath, explains the process of how to export a MyOpenMath course as a common cartridge file and import it into Moodle, activating exercises with LTI in his video.  Below you will find an image of MyOpenMath exercises integrated in a Math 10 course; the puzzle piece icon in Moodle designates "external tools," and in this case, the exercises are fully integrated into Moodle.

Robust applications such as MyOpenMath were once only available from textbook publishing companies; now, such resources are not only free online but also provide instructors with the possibility to create their own "mash-up" of OERs and instructor-developed resources within a single platform. Opportunities abound.

Screenshot of MyOpenMath homework activities in Moodle