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🌱 Free Resource: Introducing the Open Education Field Guide

I created a new free resource: the Open Education Field Guide, an interactive companion to my Open Education in Practice curriculum.


The guide is designed for faculty and the people who support them: librarians, instructional designers, teaching and learning staff, OER program leaders, graduate students, and anyone helping educators move from open education theory to open practice.


Most faculty do not get stuck because they do not care about affordability, access, or student success. They get stuck in the practical middle: where to search, how to evaluate quality, what a Creative Commons license actually allows, whether they have time to adapt a resource, and what to do when no single OER fits perfectly.


The Open Education Field Guide was built for that middle space.


Screenshot of the Open Education in Practice field guide homepage. The page headline reads, “Open education, in practice — not just in theory,” with a short description explaining that the guide helps faculty with where to look, how to judge quality, what licenses allow, and whether they have time. Two buttons invite users to start a 5-question wizard or browse 25 faculty FAQs. The bottom of the image highlights three stats: $2.9B+ saved by OpenStax users, 53.5% of surveyed students skipped a required text due to cost, and the 5 OER permissions: Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix, and Redistribute.

It includes:

  • a quick explanation of the 5Rs of OER

  • a decision wizard to help faculty choose whether to adopt, adapt, remix, create, or pause

  • a searchable faculty FAQ with practical answers to common OER questions

  • a Creative Commons license explorer that helps decode what different license combinations allow

  • a filterable OER repository directory to help users find a better starting point before they begin searching


The goal is not to give people another giant pile of links. The goal is to make open education easier to enter.


This resource grew out of my larger belief that open education support needs to be practical, humane, and designed around real conditions. Faculty need clear pathways, honest answers, and tools that respect their time and expertise. Open education is not only a value statement. It is a set of choices, structures, supports, and practices that help people move from “I believe in this” to “I know what to do next.”


The guide was created from my openly licensed Open Education in Practice curriculum and developed into an interactive web-based resource using Lovable. It is offered as a free support for faculty, OER programs, libraries, teaching and learning centers, and open education advocates who want a more usable way to introduce and support open education work.



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