iNACOL Releases New Report for Educators and Schools to Guide Collaboration on Content Development and Sharing of Open Educational Resources

WASHINGTON, June 19, 2013 – A new report released today by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) focuses on collaborative content development and open educational resources (OER). Open Educational Resources and Collaborative Content Development: A Practical Guide for State and School Leaders – written by TJ Bliss, Ph.D. of the Idaho State Department of Education, DeLaina Tonks of the Mountain Heights Academy in Utah, and iNACOL President and CEO Susan Patrick – provides educational leaders with a guide describing the benefits of OER, a framework for planning, and strategies for successful collaborative content development.

TJ Bliss, Ph.D., co-author and Director of Assessment at the Idaho State Department of Education, said, “Today’s students are embracing learning beyond textbooks, and among educators, there is
tremendous interest in personalizing learning, sharing learning materials developed by public funding, and collaborating around open educational resources.”

Co-author DeLaina Tonks, Director of Mountain Heights Academy in Utah, said, “Open educational resources leverage technology’s promise to improve teaching and learning. Over half a billion open resources available today empower teachers throughout the country to customize the educational experience and fill gaps in knowledge. When states collaborate, stakeholders win. More importantly, students win.”

Open educational resources (OER) include items such as courses, course modules and materials, etextbooks, professional development, rubrics, assessments, tests, software, and any other tools, or techniques used to transmit knowledge that have an impact on teaching and learning that are openly licensed to permit educators sharing, accessing and collaborating. Open educational resources also include born-public-domain works, such as those produced by the public sector, federal and state governments.

Susan Patrick, President and CEO of iNACOL, said, “Innovative local and state education leaders are beginning to explore exciting new opportunities to partner with their peers to develop and share high quality, openly licensed instructional materials, professional development content, and tools aligned to college and career-ready standards. By openly licensing learning materials created in the public domain, education leaders create collaboration opportunities to personalize learning and share educational resources across our public education community for the public good.”

Download a copy of Open Educational Resources and Collaborative Content Development: A Practical Guide for State and School Leaders at http://bit.ly/inacoloerguide.

For more information about iNACOL, please visit http://inacol.org.

SOURCE International Association for K-12 Online Learning