Open Educational Resources (OER) revolutionize higher education by democratizing learning materials for students and instructors alike. OER at UBC embody this vision and transform the way knowledge is shared, making it more dynamic, accessible, and easily adjustable across many disciplines.
Overcoming STEM challenges through OER
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are often overlooked in the OER movement due to the perceived complexity of content, rapid advancements in the field, reliance on proprietary tools, and the initial investment required to create quality resources.
Associate Head of Biology and Professor of Teaching in the UBC Department of Zoology Dr. Pamela Kalas was facing these challenges in her first-year science course where students examine and analyze data from two ecological studies as part of their learning. However, since these studies were not using images, the materials proved more challenging to understand.
“After using the worksheets without images for a few years, it had become clear that, despite the descriptions provided, many students had difficulty picturing how these studies were set up and how the data was collected,” Pamela explains. “It created an added challenge on top of already complex material.”
Addressing STEM Challenges
OER can address most of these challenges, including cost-savings opportunities for students, customizable and flexible materials, equitable access, and opportunities for collaboration and innovation. By integrating interactive technology, OER can help make STEM concepts more engaging and relevant. “The OER project consists in developing images that illustrate the setups of two ecology studies that students examine and analyze as part of worksheets in a first-year course,” Pamela details. “The images being developed should provide some much-needed clarity and help students focus on the interesting aspects of the worksheet.”
OER play an important role in enhancing STEM education by addressing the challenges of conveying complex concepts through adaptable and accessible materials. The ability to customize OER allows instructors to tailor resources to their specific teaching goals, improving clarity and relevance for students. “From an instructor’s and OER user’s point of view, I find it very helpful to be able to take an OER, modify it to suit my teaching purpose, and use it without having to go through copyright permission,” Pamela explains. “As a result, my course materials get better with more and more OER available, to the students’ benefits.”
Customizable OER, particularly editable illustrations significantly enhance the ability to convey complex concepts effectively. Further, these illustrations can be beneficial beyond a single course or program, fostering collaboration and continuous improvement in STEM educational materials. “In terms of images specifically, I find that being able to have custom-made and editable illustrations can greatly enhance my teaching materials,” she continues. “The best part of this is that since these images are OER, others can take advantage of them too, and as my teaching materials evolve, I can easily modify them accordingly.”
Another key aspect of using OER is that they provide an opportunity for students to actively contribute to the development of their own learning materials, fostering deeper engagement and understanding. By co-creating OER resources for their course, students gain a more thorough grasp of the course’s concepts while leveraging their perspective to enhance teaching resources.
“Students who create OER images can deepen their understanding of the scenario at hand,” Pamela shares. “They have the opportunity to leverage their point of view as students and can feel that they have made a tangible contribution to improving teaching and helping other students learn.”
From a student perspective, being involved in such a process offers a unique opportunity to develop valuable skills while actively contributing to their learning community.
“During our experience illustrating various worksheets based on studies, we have learned how to collaborate to prioritize and filter necessary information,” explain Ashleigh Wood and Aoniva Colynn, two students who helped design images for Pamela’s courses. “After some trial and error, we were able to work together to clarify elements of each study such that they would be easily understood by students. We enjoyed working together on this collaborative project as we could bounce ideas off each other and piece together elements that we individually worked on.”
What is being done at UBC
Over 90 OER projects have been funded through UBC’s OER Affordability and OER Rapid Innovation grants since their creation in 2019. Below are a few that have recently helped advance STEM in the classroom.
OER resources to support large physics courses
This project from the Department of Physics and Astronomy leverages OER to support half of its first-year physics courses, benefiting nearly 4,000 students annually. Initiated in 2013, the initiative was expanded to other courses, integrating customizable, shareable, and cost-free resources like open textbooks, lecture materials, tutorials, and homework questions. These courses now feature interactive components such as simulations, videos, and practice exams to enhance the students’ learning experience.
Flexible and flipped delivery modules for first-year chemistry
This project from the Department of Chemistry has developed flexible and flipped delivery modules for first-year chemistry courses to enhance student engagement and success. Since 2016, these modules have been utilized by over 7,800 students, resulting in a 23% overall increase in success rate. The curriculum integrates the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a thematic framework, fostering positive attitudes toward the societal impacts of chemistry. 17 activities have been redesigned as OER and released on open-source platforms, promoting accessibility and collaboration in chemistry education.
Open-source hardware/software laboratory re-fit
This project from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering focuses on enhancing the APSC160 course – Introduction to Computation Engineering – by developing open-source hardware and software laboratory materials. The initiative includes five video modules covering topics such as programming and debugging, interface elements, analog inputs, random number generation, and embedded systems. These OER are complemented by application examples and slides to facilitate hands-on learning. The materials are distributed under a Creative Commons license, promoting accessibility and collaboration in engineering education.
Designing accessible seaweed life cycle illustrations
The project from the Department of Botany focuses on creating accessible life cycle illustrations for significant seaweeds in British Columbia. This initiative addresses the scarcity of seaweed life cycle information outside of specialized textbooks and literature. Once finalized, these resources will be published under a Creative Common license on the Beaty Biodiversity Museum’s website, contributing to broader educational outreach and understanding of seaweed biology.
Looking ahead
The use of OER in STEM disciplines is steadily increasing, both globally and within higher education institutions like UBC. This growth reflects a shift toward more accessible, customizable, and collaborative teaching tools, which benefits everyone in the teaching and learning community. “I have noticed that more and more of my colleagues in the life science – but also in other sciences and math – are starting to use OER,” Pamela notes. “I think it’s a great thing!”
The future of OER at UBC holds great potential for fostering innovation and accessibility. As Pamela reflects, continued institutional support for OER development and usage can strengthen this growing movement, making resources more discoverable and widely adopted. “I hope the effort to support the development and use of OER at UBC will continue,” Pamela concludes. “It would be really nice to develop a comprehensive list of all the repositories for OER that could be searchable by topic, discipline, or even types of resources.”
