Open Educational Resources (OERs) are educational materials that have free and perpetual permissions, meaning that instructors can retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute them without fear of violating copyright permissions. OER can include textbooks, streaming videos, software, courses, recordings, or many other tools and techniques used for instruction. The Universities of Wisconsin promote and support the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) across all UW universities through consortia memberships, professional development, individual stipends, and by supporting campus level initiatives.
Opportunities to Engage
Strategies
Community of Practice & Working Groups
The Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of campus OER advocates who meet throughout the year. CoP members also participate in working groups to advance the UWs system-wide OER initiative.
Working Groups include:
- Professional Development
- Communication & Collaboration
- Publishing & Pressbooks
- Incentive Programs
- Data & Assessment
Open Educational Network (OEN)
The Open Educational Network (OEN) is a national community that supports campus-level and system-wide open education initiatives. They provide Professional Development through ongoing webinars and monthly networking opportunities in addition to the annual Engage! Virtual conference. OEN also houses a library of over 1500 open textbooks that are highly reviewed by the open education community.
Connect with your campus
UW-Eau Claire
UW-Green Bay
UW-La Crosse
UW-Madison
UW-Milwaukee
UW-Oshkosh
UW-Parkside
UW-Platteville
UW-River Falls
UW-Stevens Point
UW-Stout
UW-Superior
UW-Whitewater
To learn more, connect with a campus, or join a working group, contact us at: OpenEd@wisconsin.edu.
Pressbooks
Pressbook is one of the leading open textbook publishing platforms. Its integration in Canvas makes adoption of any Pressbooks open textbook seamless. The Universities of Wisconsin institutional membership allows faculty, instructors, and staff from any UW university access to the platform for adapting & creating open textbooks.
Explore the Universities of Wisconsin Pressbooks site where you can find webinars to learn how to use Pressbooks, resources on open textbook adoption, adaptation, or creation, more information about UW university utilization of the platform, view UW textbooks in the catalog, and submit a Pressbooks interest form to request access to a Pressbook textbook shell.
Get involved
Interested in Adopting an OER in your course?
Take a self-paced training:
- “Making the Transition to Open: The Easy Way to Create, License, and Share Free Materials”
- “Open Educational Resources 101”
Explore Open Textbooks
Interested in Mixing Up Some OER Content to Create Something for Your Course?
- Read the Pressbook User Guide
- Review the Resources with OpenStax
- Read the BC Campus “Adaptation Guide”
- Read the book “Modifying an Open Textbook”
Interested in Authoring an OER?
- Review the OEN guide for publishing
- Check out the resources available through OER Commons
- Read the book “Authoring Open Textbooks”