Open Educational Resources
As the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics are implemented, school districts will be looking for instructional material to meet the new standards. Open Educational Resources (OER) may help fill that need.
Open educational resources (OER) are free and openly licensed educational materials that can be used for teaching, learning, and research. In April 2012, the Washington State Legislature passed bill HB2337, directing the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to create a collection of openly licensed courseware aligned to the common-core standards and an associated awareness campaign to inform school districts about these resources.
OSPI’s OER Project will develop a review process that acts as a model for districts considering the adoption of full-course OER. The initial evaluation, conducted by OSPI, will examine open resources in Algebra 1 and American Literature and report how closely they align with state learning standards. The results of the review will be a resource for schools and classrooms. OSPI will not require their use, and OSPI will not create new OER content.
OER Overview one-page (pdf) Nov 13, 2012
More about OER
- What's happening with OER in Washington state? Keep abreast of current news about OER and upcoming events by checking News and Events.
- Looking for OERs to use? The OSPI OER website contains links to other websites that are not under the control of OSPI, nor is OSPI responsible for the content. See the Suggested Sites page for the full notice and access to the links.
- Want to learn more about using OER? View Resources.
- Have other questions? Read answers to common questions on the FAQ page.
2013 OER materials review
Contact
To learn more about the OER Project and get details on upcoming events, contact:
- Barbara Soots
- OER Program Manager
- (360) 725-6102
- Barbara.Soots@k12.wa.us
Sign up for our mailing list to be (infrequently) updated on events and other OER news:
Materials produced by the Washington OER Project by Digital Learning Department, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License unless otherwise noted.