Creating open educational resources (OER) may seem like
a daunting task, but a new video outreach program from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology is showing educators it’s not as difficult as they may think.
They just need to keep it simple, according to Tyler DeWitt, student
coordinator for the MIT+K12 project.
“Sometimes, when using technology, teachers feel they
have to use technology for absolutely everything—it can be frustrating,” DeWitt
said in a report for eSchool News. “I hate having to change the way I would present material
just because I’m pulling it together in a technological manner.”
DeWitt advises educators interested in creating OER
content to reach out to others who have created content they like and allow
their students to help with the technology. Smartphones also make it easy to
create video and audio content with free apps that have high-quality recording
capabilities. There are also free desktop programs available to edit audio and
video recordings.
Worksheets are a good place to start when it comes to
creating OER. At the same time, instructors should remember that content needs
to be their own work, public-domain material, or some other form of OER,
according to Dewitt.
“One of the great things about starting OER creation with
text and static images is, if you’re like most educators, you’ve already
created hundreds of resources that could become OER: worksheets, handouts,
quizzes, and tests,” he said.
