All Support Questions
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Can I use the materials on your site?
Can I use the materials on your site?
Yes, all materials on the ALG website are under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, with the exception of photos and banner images, unless otherwise indicated.
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How can I get the word out about OER at my institution?
How can I get the word out about OER at my institution?
Our OER Champions should be your first point of contact for on-campus advocacy. We also have an advocacy kit with ready-made materials to share.
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How can library resources act as no-cost resources for students in a course?
How can library resources act as no-cost resources for students in a course?
Through a learning management system, faculty can curate resources and share them through permalinks. Students should be able to log into their institution and GALILEO accounts and access these at no cost.
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I want to work with OER more in my position, or I’ve been asked to be the OER contact at my institution. What are some ways I can learn about this kind of work?
I want to work with OER more in my position, or I’ve been asked to be the OER contact at my institution. What are some ways I can learn about this kind of work?
Check out our resources section for multiple guides on OER and other affordable resources. For a more in-depth training, the Open Education Network has a Certificate in OER Librarianship program.
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How do you keep up with grant projects after the project is completed? Can you ensure these projects are still saving students money?
How do you keep up with grant projects after the project is completed? Can you ensure these projects are still saving students money?
Every year, we reach out to all of our grant teams to see if the use of the no-cost or low-cost materials is still happening, if the same or different resources are used, or if usage has discontinued, along with any reasons for discontinuation. If they respond, we update our grant savings numbers per the response. If they do not respond, we zero out this project’s savings for that time period. If they respond in a future year that use has continued, we will update the numbers appropriately. Discontinued projects are no longer checked on in future years.
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How often do these savings numbers get updated or change?
How often do these savings numbers get updated or change?
Savings numbers on our main pages change yearly in order to keep a consistent message while projects continue. On our data dashboard, which is used for a deeper dive into our data, these numbers are updated per fall and spring semesters.
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What do the savings numbers on your impact page mean?
What do the savings numbers on your impact page mean?
Grant savings numbers are reported by faculty as an average amount of students affected by their projects per semester and the average price of the materials replaced by OER. The average price of the replaced materials minus any new costs post-transformation, multiplied by the number of students, is the total amount of savings for a grant project. eCampus estimates are sent to us directly from eCampus using their enrollment numbers and per-course savings estimates.
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What if I encounter a glitch in OpenALG or GALILEO Open Learning Materials?
What if I encounter a glitch in OpenALG or GALILEO Open Learning Materials?
Please contact us at affordablelearninggeorgia@usg.edu, and we will route this glitch to the right support team.
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What happens if I write or edit an open resource?
What happens if I write or edit an open resource?
You can make the rules! Creative Commons open licenses include a few different versions, from CC0 with zero rights reserved to CC BY-NC-SA, where you need to attribute the original work if you revise or remix it, you can’t use the work for commercial purposes, and you must share any new resources made with the original under the same license.
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Do I need an account to access OER?
Do I need an account to access OER?
You should not need any account to access OER in a place where OER is hosted. OER that are downloadable in a learning management system like D2L will require an LMS account to get to those, but authors of OER should be sharing copies of these outside of their LMS to make them available to all.
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OER are free - what’s the catch?
OER are free - what’s the catch?
There are no catches to open educational resources. You can download them, share them, customize them, and even author them! Open licenses can have a few restrictions when you share them with the world, such as attributing the original resource if you make a new OER out of it.
or [esc] key - How can I make sure my course is listed as no-cost or low-cost materials in Banner?
- How do I know if my course should be a no-cost or low-cost materials course in Banner?
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How do you get materials added to GALILEO Open Learning Materials or OpenALG?
How do you get materials added to GALILEO Open Learning Materials or OpenALG?
Materials in our repositories are either created through our grants or through our partnership with the University of North Georgia Press. To keep our collections focused and connected to our mission, these are the only materials that qualify to be added. There are free places to create and host OER, such as OER Commons and MERLOT Content Builder.
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If there aren’t any OER for my course out there, what can I do?
If there aren’t any OER for my course out there, what can I do?
If you cannot find any OER for your course, consider library resources! Your institution and GALILEO make these available at no additional cost to students, and especially with upper-level and graduate courses, library resources often can cover more focused and in-depth subjects. You also can author OER yourself. Check our grants page for more information on how a project like this could be supported by ALG.
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What if I find errors in a resource on GALILEO Open Learning Materials or OpenALG?
What if I find errors in a resource on GALILEO Open Learning Materials or OpenALG?
Please contact us at affordablelearninggeorgia@usg.edu, and we will route errata to the appropriate grant team or open publisher.
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What is an open educational resource (OER)?
What is an open educational resource (OER)?
An open educational resource is any resource used for teaching and learning that anyone can revise, remix, redistribute, retain, and reuse. OER are usually made open through the assignment of a Creative Commons open license. For more, visit our OER overview page.
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Are the OER in GALILEO Open Learning Materials and OpenALG accessible to students with different and/or impaired abilities?
Are the OER in GALILEO Open Learning Materials and OpenALG accessible to students with different and/or impaired abilities?
Our grantees and the UNG Press create new OER with accessibility in mind, but teams vary in the amount of training and tools they have to make their OER maximally accessible to all. Texts that are native to OpenALG (through Manifold) should be accessible via screen readers, along with extra accessibility features such as font adjustment, margin adjustment, and a light/dark mode toggle.
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Didn't find your answer?
Contact us by email at affordablelearninggeorgia@usg.edu