Purpose: Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning materials openly licensed so that others may retain, reuse, revise, remix or redistribute (the 5Rs) these materials. This paper aims to raise awareness of OER by providing a rationale for using these learning materials and a strategy for educators to get started with OER during the collective crisis and beyond.Design/methodology/approach: Using a broad research base and anecdotes from personal experience, the authors make the case that OER improves student access to learning materials and improves the learning experience in both PK-12 and higher education contexts.Findings: The authors define and describe the benefits of OER to provide practical suggestions educators can implement during the pandemic and beyond.Practical implications: To support educators in finding and using OER, this paper highlights repositories that include a breadth of various learning materials across subject areas and educational contexts. The authors provide specific suggestions for finding, personalizing and contextualizing OER.Originality/value: This work not only provides an overview of OER with particular considerations for educators during the COVID-19 pandemic but also makes the case that OER should be integrated into classrooms beyond the pandemic.

Many environmental challenges facing society today, such as climate change and integrated water management, have been described as “wicked problems” due to their biological, physical, and social complexity. Wicked problems extend across media such as air, land, and water; across political jurisdictions and landscape boundaries; and across traditional policy arenas. Traditional policy approaches that are media-specific, rely on single agencies for implementation, and that do not effectively engage stakeholders and partners outside of government are generally ineffective in addressing these issues. The management of toxic chemicals is a classic “wicked problem.” Existing toxics policies often exacerbate the “wicked” nature of this issue by ignoring its inherent complexity and the need to bridge across agencies, jurisdictions, and constituencies to effectively manage these substances. Current US policies make it difficult to gather sufficient information to assess the environmental and health impacts of the thousands of chemicals in use. Lack of incentives for industry to invest in safer alternatives has also created a gap between the need for safer chemical alternatives and development of safer technologies, processes, or products. This article explores how policy strategies that foster cross-agency coordination, engage stakeholders in policy development and implementation, and represent a more systems-oriented, holistic approach may be more effective in addressing such complex wicked problems. While federal action is needed to avoid a regulatory “race to the bottom,” there are also opportunities for states to encourage the development and adoption of safer alternatives to chemicals of concern.

Developing Open Practices in Teacher Education: An Example of Integrating OER and Developing Renewable Assignments

Due to complex interactions between social and ecological systems, herbicide resistance has classic features of a “wicked problem”. Herbicide-resistant (HR) Poa annua poses a risk to sustainably managing U.S. turfgrass systems, but there is scant knowledge to guide its management. Six focus groups were conducted throughout the United States to gain understanding of socio-economic barriers to adopting herbicide-resistance management practices. Professionals from major turfgrass sectors (golf courses, sports fields, lawn care, and seed/sod production) were recruited as focus-group participants. Discussions emphasized challenges of the weed management of turfgrass systems as compared to agronomic crops. This included greater time constraints for managing weeds and more limited chemical control options. Lack of understanding about the proper use of compounds with different modes of action was identified as a threat to sustainable weed management. There were significant regional differences in perceptions of the existence, geographic scope, and social and ecological causes of HR in managing Poa annua. Effective resistance management will require tailoring chemical and non-chemical practices to the specific conditions of different turfgrass sectors and regions. Some participants thought it would be helpful to have multi-year resistance management programs that are both sector- and species-specific.

Given the importance of writing, especially in light of college and career readiness emphasis, and the observations that time spent writing in context diminishes over a student's years in school, this article proposes to reignite writing instruction in elementary classrooms through three practical approaches for supporting students in authentic writing. Examples using these three approaches in the literacy block are included so as to reignite writers.

Employees in the twenty-first century must be equipped to effectively process information from print and online sources; yet, many students struggle with online research and comprehension skills, making them ill-prepared in college and careers. Utilizing a qualitative exploratory case study design, this study describes how a fourth-grade teacher developed her students’ online research and comprehension skills in small groups using the guided reading framework to frame her instruction. Key findings suggest that the teacher adapted many components of the guided reading framework to develop students’ online inquiry skills. Both the teacher and students experienced role changes and challenges related to the experience, yet students demonstrated high rates of engagement and collaboration. This paper provides a situated example of how a teacher adapted an existing instructional context in her classroom and implications for adapting other popular instructional context, frameworks, and models for supporting teachers in developing students’ digital literacy skills.