From Lecture Notes to Learning Resource: How to Turn Existing Course Materials Into an OER

You probably have the beginnings of an open educational resource sitting on your laptop already. Maybe it’s buried in a folder called “Course Materials FINAL,” alongside 47 PowerPoint presentations, three versions of the syllabus, some very old PDFs and a recording of a lecture you forgot existed.

The good news? It’s not necessary to begin again.

Useful OERs can be built off of your current lectures, assignments, videos, examples and reading lists. If it’s a lecture you can record, even add subtitles to video to make it more accessible, break it into shorter segments, and add activities or discussion questions.

The key is to make learning from the teaching materials. Here’s how.

1. Take Inventory Before You Start Writing

So you could be tempted to create a new document and begin typing. Resist it.

Go to the existing resources you are using for the course, before developing new ones. Look through your:

•  Lecture notes and slide decks
•  Assignments and worksheets
•  Recorded lectures
•  Quizzes and exams
•  Reading lists
•  Case studies
•  Diagrams and illustrations
•  Examples you’ve collected over the years
•  Questions students ask repeatedly

Then break it down into 3 easy-to-understand groups: Keep, Update, Replace.

A lecture from three years ago may be still be quite relevant, and another may refer to websites that are no longer available 2 years back. This is very helpful information to have before you begin to create your resource.

Try to visualize this stage as you’re packing up a closet. You can’t put things in order until you first know what you have.

2. Let Your Syllabus Become the Skeleton

After you are aware of what you have then the basic structure of your syllabus can be provided by your syllabus.

A helpful OER could be structured in a hierarchical fashion:

Course → Units → Chapters → Concepts → Activities

For instance, the Psychology course could be changed to:

Chapter 1: An introduction to psychology.

→ Chapter 1: What Is Psychology?

→ Chapter 2: Research Methods

→ Chapter 3: The Brain and Behavior

This may seem like a no-brainer, but online organization is a major factor when it comes to making things good. Pupils should not be forced to work through a virtual mountain of information to find out where to start.

Use your learning objectives to guide each section, too. When adding content, consider the following question: What do students need to know or be able to do after reading this?

If you can’t answer that, the content may not belong at the site—or maybe it does not require to.

3. Turn Lectures Into Learning, Not Transcripts

Important note, a lecture is not (necessarily) a textbook chapter just because it’s written.

When you’re teaching in person, you provide context with your voice, gestures, examples and the occasional “this part will be on the exam.” Students may ask questions if they are confused.

A digital resource doesn’t have that luxury.

So instead of copying a lecture word-for-word, break it into smaller learning units.

Suppose that your lecture includes five theories of motivation. Instead of having to explain five pages of material, you could provide each theory:

•  A short explanation
•  A real-world example
•  A comparison with another theory
•  A visual or diagram
•  A reflection question
•  A short activity

For instance, having introduced a theory of motivation, ask students to pinpoint a place where they could find an example of it in a work place, classroom or social media setting.

Suddenly, they’re not just reading about a concept. They’re using it in some way.

And that’s the real transformation: you’re moving from delivering information to designing opportunities to learn.

4. Give Students Something to Do

No one likes to read 80 pages of straight text, particularly when they can think of a better way to spend their time, such as contemplating whether coffee qualifies as dinner.

An effective OER provides students with frequent chances for stopping, thinking and applying what they have just learned.

These activities don’t have to require complicated technology. Try adding:

Reflection questions:

“What would happen if this theory were applied in a completely different cultural context?”

Mini quizzes:

Give students three or four questions after a section so they can check whether they’ve understood the basics.

Case studies:

Present a realistic scenario and ask students to decide what they would do.

Practice problems:

Let students try a concept before moving to the next chapter.

Discussion prompts:

Ask questions that don’t have an obvious one-sentence answer.

It’s not about making each paragraph an assignment. The idea is to establish a rhythm: learn it, think about it, use it.

5. Use Multimedia When It Actually Helps

There are lots of choices available to educators when it comes to digital publishing. You can include videos, audio, images, diagrams, interactive activities and other resources.

However, simply because you can add a detail, doesn’t mean that you must.

A five minute video is not always better than two paragraphs of good explanation. If students take longer than they need to use an animated graphic, it isn’t very helpful.

Before adding multimedia ask a simple question:

Does this make the idea easier to understand?

A video may be the ideal choice if you’re introducing a lab technique. You may find a diagram more suitable if you are describing how a complex system functions. If students require to hear the pronunciation, audio is logical.

Also, keep in mind accessibility. For videos, provide captions and for important visual information, provide a text alternative. It isn’t just an OER getting more interesting, it’s making a more useful OER for more learners.

6. Make Accessibility Part of the Design

Making things accessible is best done when you consider it from the outset rather than as a final inspection.

Start with simple habits.

Make content easy to follow with headings; do not go overboard with bold and large text for pretty looks. Use descriptive link text; students should know what a link is going to do. Provide descriptive and relevant alternative text for images. Provide captions and transcripts for videos as needed.

Take into account the general reading experience as well.

Do the paragraphs feel like they are too big? Do ideas flow between paragraphs and sections? Are students able to easily locate their section? Does the resource make sense on different devices?

Excellent accessibility is frequently excellent design, period. Well-structured content and readable formatting aid students with specific accessibility requirements, but they are also beneficial for everyone. They help make everyone’s life easier.

7. Let Students Help Build the Resource

Here’s where an OER can become more than a free digital textbook.

Open pedagogy: It is an approach to teaching that allows students to contribute to the generation and development of knowledge. This doesn’t necessarily mean giving them the keys to your whole course and wishing them the best of luck.

Start small.

Have students point out difficult passages and make better explanations. Ask them to make glossary definitions. Allow them to create examples or case studies. Have students groups develop questions for subsequent students.

You can even conclude a semester with a question like:

What would you like to have learned about this resource in more detail?

Their solutions could be the list of tasks for the next iteration.

This forms a handy loop:

Teach → publish → get feedback → improve → teach again.

Your OER becomes a living resource instead of something that gets published once and quietly gathers digital dust.

8. Don’t Wait for Perfect

A last danger to guard against is to try to produce the ideal OER prior to publication.

You probably won’t.

And that’s fine.

Begin with 1 unit. Convert the best parts of your lecture into a chapter. Include some activities. Improve the accessibility. Seek comments from students/colleagues.

Next do the following unit.

Writing a textbook is not as daunting if you don’t think of it as such, but as making this week’s material more useful.

Your Existing Materials Are the Starting Point

Creating an OER doesn’t have to mean sitting down with a blank document and somehow producing an entire textbook from thin air.

You have already put hours of effort into creating explanations, examples, assignments and activities. The materials are important raw materials.

The next step is to organize them around what students actually need: clear explanations, useful examples, opportunities to practice and an easy way to navigate the material.

Start small, build up and involve your students in the process.

The next open educational resource you’re looking for could be on your laptop. Maybe it requires a bit less “FINAL_FINAL_v7” and a lot more learning.