4 Using OER for your own purposes

You found other OER as part of Activity 5.2; and in Week 4 (Activity 4.2) you considered how you might use a TESS-India teacher development OER in your own teaching.

Reflection point

To what extent was the TESS-India OER you chose suited to what you wanted to do and to your context? Did you find that any parts of it were not suitable? Were there parts of the OER that were particularly useful? What were the challenges you faced? 

Remember that if an OER does not meet your needs exactly you can adapt it to suit your needs. However, if you decide to share an adapted OER, you must ensure that its licence permits you to do so. There are different sorts of licence and different conditions that you need to meet. For example, you may be required to submit revised versions of the OER to the original repository, or acknowledge the original source.

You can find out more about the different licences from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education website [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

In Activity 5.4 you will select an OER and consider how you will use it.

Activity 5.4 is Assignment 5 of the portfolio of participation. In order to complete this assignment effectively you will need to identify a peer or colleague who is willing to work with you on the task. As with Activity 3.3, you may need to provide them with some key background information about the TESS-India OER prior to working with you on your assignment. For example, that the TESS-India OER:

  • position teachers and teacher educators as active learners
  • bring together theory and practice to support educators in implementing active participatory approaches to learning.

Activity 5.4: Assignment 5 – Select OER and plan for use

Timing: Allow approximately 1 hour
  1. Find an OER (either from TESS-India or somewhere else) that would be useful in your own work with teachers. 
  2.  Write a paragraph or two (no more than 200 words) that:
    • gives the title and pedagogical focus of the OER
    • explains why you selected this OER and what you want your teachers or student teachers to learn from it
    • describes how you would organise your teachers or student teachers in order to do the activities in the OER so they are actively engaged with the ideas
    • explains any small amendments you would want to make to the OER.
  3. Share the OER you selected and your response to it with a peer or colleague.
  4. Ask your colleague to provide you with some feedback (50–100 words) using the following questions to guide their response:
    • Are the suggestions for using the OER engaging, motivating and helpful for teachers or student teachers?
    • Does the OER have the potential to be useful to other teacher educators in a similar context?
  5. Record the feedback you received in your notebook.

Optional activity

If your colleague is willing, repeat the activity with the roles reversed – ask them to select an OER and write a paragraph or two on how they would use it. Provide them with feedback using the questions above to guide your response.

  • In your notebook, record their response and the feedback you provided.

Reflection point

What challenges did you encounter in selecting and evaluating OER? How could you encourage colleagues to find OER and use them? What support do you think might be helpful?