Designing and Developing Open Education Resources in Higher Education: A Molecular Biology Project

Recent advances in internet technology have transformed how we gather and share information in today's world and have provided us with a platform to access educational resources and related information on the Internet. Every day, new technologies are developed that are changing the when and where we access that information. The capabilities of new technologies have allowed society to access information and learn virtually anywhere. As technical ingenuity continues to generate new technologies and paths of communication, we must look for opportunities to collaborate, share and extend our educational resources in higher education. Distributing Open Educational Resources (OER) in the form of freely licensed materials is necessary in order to laterally influence current advances in learning technologies. Online resources are being used in a variety of contexts to supplement instruction and training at higher education institutions. The aim of this Open Educational Resource project was to design and develop a blended learning instructional program to assist online users in developing familiarity with laboratory techniques prior to conducting molecular biology research in an authentic laboratory setting. This paper will look at the background of OER, describe the online materials that the Center for Cardiovascular Research (CCR) developed for open use, and discuss the outcomes and implications for use.