Open Educational Resources

OER Project Newsletter

Each month we provide recommended materials that teachers, educators, or families may find helpful.

Open Educational Resources

Barbara Soots

360-725-6102

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials in the public domain or released under an open license that permits their free use, adaptation, and sharing. OER can be produced in any medium --digital or print. They include full courses, supplemental units and lessons, videos, and any other resource used to support access to knowledge.

Washington OER Hub

The Washington OER Hub is an online library of K-12 open educational resources created by and curated for Washington educators. Resources include unit or robust lesson level suppolemental instructional materials, educator guidance documents, and professional learning materials.

Search for materials by content area, grade, or learning standard. Users can also browse through curated learning collections organized by content area or target audience. Content is added regularly.

Resources on the Washington OER Hub:

  • align to Washington learning standards
  • have clear learning objectives with accurate and relevant materials
  • support sound teaching practices and have developmentally and culturally appropriate content
  • cultivate student interest and engagement

Watch the Intro to the Washington OER Hub

Download the Washington OER Hub Overview for more information.

OER Grants

Many districts are developing or adapting openly licensed resources. As a result, we have a tremendous opportunity to share resources across districts and reduce duplication of efforts. These small, competitive grants are provided to districts developing their own OER core or unit-level instructional materials.

Resources & Guidance

Getting Started Resources
Development Guidance and Tools

Below are practical resources designed to help educators create or adapt OER to integrate into their core or supplemental instructional materials.

  • OER Development Tools and Guidance | OSPI Washington OER Hub - This group features resources to help in the successful creation, adaptation, and licensing of open educational resources.
  • Quickstart Guide to Openly Licensed Resources | OSPI - This guide provides information on how to locate and provide attribution for openly licensed images as well as guidance on which images cannot be used due to lack of copyright permission.
  • OER Licensing Checklist | OSPI - Use this checklist to make sure that all the requirements for open licensing are met. Please note that it is very helpful to review this checklist BEFORE you begin development work so that you are designing your resource with open licensing requirements in mind from the beginning
  • ESSA and OER - The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) contains specific language that allows school districts to channel funds from Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants (Title IV, Part A) toward the use and development of OER.

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