Open Education: Getting Started Guide

Guide
Written By Gabby Hernandez

Whether you’re brand new to Open Education or looking for ways to expand your impact, this guide can connect you with useful tools, resources, and community. This list contains nine core areas of practice based on the Open Education Association Development Project’s Needs Assessment Survey. It provides practical ways to engage in each of these areas to help you take action.

  • Overview: 

    Open Education is a philosophy that knowledge should be freely shared and accessible to everyone. It includes practices, policies, and resources that remove barriers to learning and empower educators and learners to collaborate in new ways. 

    If this is your first time encountering Open Education, the resources below provide useful entry points to understand the movement, its history, and its global impact:

    Resources To Explore: 

  • Overview:
    Finding high-quality, openly licensed materials is often the first step in open education work. Open Educational Resources (OER) can replace costly textbooks, supplement existing courses with fresh perspectives, or spark entirely new learning experiences. Knowing how and where to search saves time, reduces costs, and ensures the resources you select are engaging, accessible, and adaptable.

    Engage:
    A helpful approach—well described by Affordable Learning Georgia—is to start small with focused collections and end big by searching comprehensive indexes that span multiple repositories. 

    Start Small: Begin your search within well-known collections of open resources. These often surface high-quality, peer-reviewed materials tailored to specific subjects or educational levels.

    End Big: When you’ve explored those and want broader results, use large-scale search tools to cast a wider net, doing so with filters to narrow results by discipline, format, or licensing terms. Bookmark sources that consistently meet your needs for future use.

    Search for a course topic or concept you teach or support, then review materials for quality, accessibility, and licensing compatibility. Join educator communities to share and discover recommended OER, reach out to your institutional library to see if they offer support with locating OER, and keep a list of your favorite sources for future reference.

    Resources to Explore:

    Start Small (Open Collections):

    • Open Textbook Library – lists of open textbooks with peer reviews grouped by subject

    • OpenStax– peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks in multiple high enrollment subjects

    • LibreTexts – collections of textbooks across many disciplines broken down by chapter to encourage resource creation

    • Pressbooks Directory – searchable catalog of open access books published on the Pressbooks platform

    End Big (Aggregated Search Tools):

    • OER Commons – robust aggregated repository of primary, secondary and post secondary open resources with search and review features

    • Mason OER Metafinder – simultaneous real-time search across multiple open and public domain sources

    • OASIS – searchable OER referatory with extensive filters and browsing options

  • Overview:
    Open licensing provides flexibility for educators and practitioners to customize or create OER that is tailored to meet the specific needs of your learners. Taking a step further and publishing that work openly contributes to the wider community while also building your professional profile.

    Engage:
    When considering a resource to adapt or create, review the resource’s licensing terms to ensure you can make changes and ensure license compatibility. A variety of OER publishing platforms exist to help adapt and modify the resources and can simplify the process of sharing your work. Just like traditional publishing, consider a peer review process for quality assurance of large publishing projects such as full textbook creation.

    Resources to Explore:

    Publishing Platforms:

    • Pressbooks – authoring and publishing platform for OER

    • LibreTexts – open authoring platform for textbooks, simulations, and ancillary course materials

    • OER Commons Open Author – free open authoring tool within the OER Commons repository that allows the creation and adaptation of OER

    • Manifold - publishing platform that converts existing files into responsive online texts that can be annotated and augmented with media

    • MyOpenMath - online course management and assessment system for mathematics and other quantitative fields

  • Overview:
    Open education work thrives on having the right tools to create, adapt, share, and manage resources. From platforms that make publishing easy to guides that walk you through best practices, these tools can streamline your workflow, improve the quality of your outputs, and make collaboration easier.

    Engage:
    Think about what stage you’re in. If you’re new to open education or planning a new project, utilize getting started guides to help you design your approach. If you’re ready to create or adapt materials, explore open publishing guides to find tools to match the program’s needs. Subject specific resource guides can help hone the more advanced pieces of your open education work. Many practitioners utilize a variety of tools to guide their open education work.

    Getting Started Tools and Resources:

  • Overview:
    The open education landscape changes quickly with new policies, funding opportunities, tools, publications, and research emerging regularly. Staying informed ensures your work remains relevant and aligned with the latest best practices.

    Engage:
    Subscribe to newsletters, join discussion forums, and follow organizations in the field. Schedule a regular time to review updates and skim new research so you can identify trends early and respond proactively to changes that affect your work. Combining practice-based news with peer-reviewed research helps you stay grounded in both policy shifts and scholarly insights.

    Resources to Explore:

    Journals & Research:

  • Overview:
    Growing your skills and knowledge can enhance your ability to advance your open education initiatives. Professional development can take many forms, from live sessions where you can interact with presenters and peers, to self-paced courses and resources you can explore on your own schedule. Both approaches can help you stay ahead of trends, adopt effective strategies, and deepen your understanding of the field.

    Engage:
    A balance of synchronous and independent learning opportunities can help suit your professional needs. Live webinars, workshops, and conferences offer real-time discussion and networking while independent study options, such as recorded courses, online modules, and written guides let you learn at your own pace. Take advantage of both to build a broad and flexible knowledge base. Consider sharing what you learn with your colleagues to multiply the impact.

    Resources to Explore:

    Synchronous:

    Independent Study:

  • Overview:
    Open education is built on collaboration. This field has not advanced by one single initiative, instead it has thrived on shared ideas, collective problem-solving, and partnerships across organizations, institutions, regions, and disciplines. Building a strong network not only provides support but also opens the door to new opportunities, innovative projects, and a greater sense of community.

    Engage:
    Participate in conferences, join listservs and community forums, and connect with local or regional working groups. Don’t just observe, introduce yourself, share your work, and ask questions! Networking in open education is less about formal titles and more about shared goals and even a simple exchange can spark collaboration. Consider participating in a mentoring program or volunteering for committees within open education organizations to deepen your engagement.

    Communities to Explore:

  • Overview:
    Open education is influenced by shifts in technology, policy, funding, and leadership. Being ready to adapt to these changes helps ensure your work remains impactful and sustainable, even in challenging environments.

    Engage:
    Stay connected to policy updates, accessibility standards, and technology trends. Build flexibility into your projects so you can pivot when needed. Utilize research and collect institutional open education program data to keep current and future leaders informed. When major changes occur, use your network to share strategies and learn from others facing similar challenges.

    Resources to Explore:

  • Overview:
    Securing financial resources can help enhance or sustain open education initiatives. Funding can be used to support key areas that can improve the success of the program. A few examples could be staff time, technology, open publishing platforms, OER creation, and professional training for staff members and engaged faculty. Funding can come from a variety of sources and levels such as institutions, systems, states, and federal sources. You can also align open education with current funder goals such as student success, academic and curricular innovation, affordability, deepening student learning and engagement, advancing teaching excellence, workforce development and readiness, and so much more! 

    Engage:
    Try to identify funding needs early and explore a mix of options, from institutional grants to external funders. Develop a strong case for support by highlighting the benefits of your project to students, faculty, and the institution. Communicate and engage with decision-makers and executive leadership to share the impact of this work and include clear data and compelling stories from students, educators, and practitioners.

    Checklist:

    Here’s a quick-start checklist to help you gain ideas for institutional or system funding opportunities:

    • Search your campus and system websites

      Use keywords like “internal grant,” “faculty development,” or “teaching innovation.”

    • Ask in your department

      Your chair or team lead may know of past proposals or internal grant cycles.

    • Connect with your campus grants office
      Offices like Sponsored Research or Research Development often track internal and external opportunities.

    • Check with your CTL or library

      Teaching and Learning Centers and libraries are often involved in OER or instructional redesign grants.

    • Explore internal funding programs
      Look into grants from the Provost’s Office, student success programs, or innovation initiatives to see if they align with open practices.

    • Talk to colleagues
      Learn from those who’ve applied for campus-based funding before.

    • Review institutional memberships
      Institutions could have a membership to an open organization that can guide you to finding local funding initiatives.

    • Explore regional education compacts

      The four regional education compacts support open education work. Follow your region’s compact to stay abreast of possible funding opportunities.

  • Overview:
    Recognition plays a powerful role in sustaining open education work. It validates the time and energy that individuals and teams invest, helps build professional reputations, and highlights the impact of open practices on teaching, learning, and equity. Recognition also raises visibility for the broader movement, encouraging institutions and policymakers to invest more deeply in open education.

    Engage:
    Actively seek out opportunities to showcase your work, whether through formal awards, institutional teaching honors, or presentations at conferences. You can seek institutional teaching and innovation awards as well as local and state recognition programs. Nominate peers whose contributions inspire you; recognition strengthens the community when it’s shared widely. Even informal recognition, such as sharing successes within your department or on social media, can inspire others and build momentum.

    Resources to Explore:

Gabby Hernandez
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