OER in a Time of Corona

My previous post was about the advantages of using the Moodle learning management system and open educational resources, OER, in a digital or distance learning environment. Because so many schools and teachers are suddenly being required to make big changes, it is important to remember to Keep it Simple and Do First Things First. Keeping it simple with regard to a learning management system means by all means use the one you have, or in the immortal sound of Stephen Stills, Rita Coolidge, et al., Love the One Your With .  If you have Schoology, or Canvas, or D2L, or Google Classroom use them. An emergency transition to distance learning is not the time to change to a new LMS. If you're not already using an LMS, or if your district doesn't already have an LMS that can accommodate all grade levels and disciplines then a Moodle site might be the best option.

When it comes to the content to use in a digital learning environment, openly licensed content or OER will always be the best first choice. The exception to that would be if you or your district already has a subscription to a complete course in a digital format that is easily accessible by students remotely. If you have the subscription but haven't been using it, consider using OER content instead. It's also important that districts or departments of teachers and classes reach a consensus on which content to use. This is not a time when every teacher does that with which they personally feel most comfortable. This is a time for teaming and collaboration.

As I said in my previous post, OER will allow teachers, or teams of teachers, the freedom to revise the content to meet the particular needs of their students. The availability of OER material for K-12 has grown dramatically in recent years such that there’s no longer any reason for teachers or schools to pay for access to content. The Minnesota Partnership for Collaborative Curriculum (MPCC) is a good example of OER content for K-12. The content is available for free to anyone who wants to use it.

One of the big advantages that the MPCC offers is that it is a comprehensive collection of digital course work for each of the four core subject areas – Math, Science, English Language Arts, and Social Studies – for grades 3-12. All of the courses are aligned to Minnesota standards but they could easily be adapted to standards in other states or countries. That’s the beauty of OER; it’s adaptable to the particular needs of students. The comprehensiveness combined with the adaptability of the MPCC courses provides teachers the assurance that the content they're using fulfills the state's requirements, but they're able to add or substitute any content in any area they need for their students. The structure of the courses, which includes assessments and teaching, will be valuable to teachers who are trying to provide structure for students who may be experiencing some of the most chaotic times in their lives. 

It might be somewhat comforting to note that most teams only need to choose to use enough content to get them and their students to the end of this academic year. It will be easier to think about longer range choices for next year when we get a summer break. The advantage of OER content now is that it can be adapted to fit whatever is chosen for next year. Content and tools to use for digital distance learning will be evolving quickly in the days and weeks to come - pick another lively tune to keep your spirits up.

Moodle and OER in a time of Corona

  In this unsettling time in which we're now living, all schools are being forced to reconsider how to provide instruction and learning. Schools that have already been fully online won’t need to make many changes. Those that have been hybrid or blended will only need to add to what they’ve already created.  Whenever possible, schools should choose to use openly licensed content on openly licensed software. I make this recommendation based on my years of experience with systemic open practices and my experience implementing instructional and assessment software in schools in both K‒12 and higher ed.

The best open source learning management software for teachers at any level to use is Moodle, which is used by two-thirds of higher education institutions in the world. Using Moodle now will be the safest way to ensure student privacy, the best way to enable retrieval of student work created now and in the future, and the best way to get assistance from other users of the learning management system. Being able to get help from other teachers is crucial. Because Moodle is the most widely used system globally it provides the greatest possibilities for support and it already has over fifteen years of well documented user experience upon which to draw. Small Moodle sites (up to 50 students) are available for free. Sites for more students are very inexpensive and the setup time is minimal. If you need assistance I can help with that.

I began using Moodle in a 3rd and 4th grade classroom in 2007. This blog post describes some of the ways I found it useful with 3rd and 4th graders. That post is from almost 10 years ago. Since then, I’ve spent several years assisting higher ed faculty in how to move their courses to a hybrid environment. It’s actually a lot easier than it seems at first, and it frequently enriches the teaching and learning experience for both the teacher and students. A common reaction from senior faculty who converted their course(s) to a hybrid format from a face to face format was - ‘Why hasn’t anyone shown me how to do this before now?’

Changing how students and teachers interact offers a new experience. In 2004 Garrison and Kanuka explained that asynchronous Internet communication technology, the kind of experience that Moodle offers (synchronous communication is also an option), has the “ability to facilitate a simultaneously independent and collaborative learning experience. That is, learners can be independent of space and time—yet together.” (1)  Online can be a good thing. In my experience that’s possible for any age from grade 3 to graduate school.

The best type of content for teachers to present to students on Moodle is openly licensed content or OER. Teachers are able to link to any type of digital media from within Moodle so they’re not restricted to only using OER, but OER will allow them the freedom to revise the content to meet the particular needs of their students. The availability of OER material for K-12 has grown dramatically in recent years such that there’s no longer any reason for teachers or schools to pay for access to content. The Minnesota Partnership for Collaborative Curriculum (MPCC) is a good example of OER content for K-12.

The MPCC is a grassroots initiative of more than 200 Minnesota school districts that created a comprehensive collection of openly licensed digital course work for each of the four core subject areas – Math, Science, English Language Arts, and Social Studies – for grades 3-12. Here's a 5 minute video about the MPCC. The more than forty full year long courses created by the MPCC are aligned to Minnesota standards but they could easily be adapted to standards in other states or countries. That’s the beauty of OER; it’s adaptable to the particular needs of students. The content is available for free to anyone who wants to use it. The enormous contribution to education by organisations like the MPCC and Moodle is becoming more apparent daily. Those contributions will be long lasting.

Moodle could use your help now to continue providing free and inexpensive sites to teachers and schools. Go to the donation page here.

1.  Garrison, D. R., and H. Kanuka. 2004. Blended learning: Uncovering its transformative potential in higher education. Internet and Higher Education

7 (2): 95–105.doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2004.02.001.