Open Educational Resources

SETDA Publishes OER Case Studies and Resources

• By Leila Meyer
• 08/28/15

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) has published a series of three case studies and other resources designed to support open educational resource (OER) initiatives at the state, district and school level.

SETDA defines open educational resources as "teaching and learning materials that are free and may be used, reused, mixed and otherwise customized to meet specific needs," and points out that not all free educational resources are open educational resources. While free resources may help schools cut costs, open educational resources have the added distinction of allowing customization.

"OER materials provide our teachers with the ability to customize content for the specific needs of their classes," said Brad C. Smith, state superintendent of Public Instruction for Utah, in a prepared statement. "The use of OER encourages collaboration among educators and is often more cost effective than traditional textbooks."

SETDA has published case studies about OER implementations in New York, Utah and Washington state. Each case study describes the state's policies on OER and the details of OER implementation in a specific school district, including the process of evaluating resources, associated professional learning, budgets and lessons learned. Leaders at the state, district and school level can look to these resources for ideas to use in their own OER initiatives.

In addition to the case studies, SETDA has also published information about OER licensing, particularly Creative Commons licensing, information about accessible educational materials (AEM) for students with special needs, and links to additional information about open educational resources.

SETDA's OER case studies and other resources can be found on the SETDA site.