Composing Possibilities: Open Educational Resources and K-12 Music Education

Music open educational resources (OER) have the potential to fill gaps in access to instructional materials for K-12 music teachers and learners, and to support teachers and learners as content creators and collaborators in meeting educational goals. This study explores the current state of music OER, the audiences that these resources serve to benefit, and the opportunities and challenges involved in adopting an open approach to the development of music education resources.

• Successful Strategy: Students use music OER both to meet course expectations and to satisfy personal curiosities. It enables experiential learning where students are co-creators and innovators. Tweet
• Successful Strategy: Students use music OER both to meet course expectations and to satisfy personal curiosities. It enables experiential learning where students are co-creators and innovators. Tweet
• Observation: OER are well-positioned to help educators in high poverty schools that lack adequate resources. Teaching artists in public schools across the country are also likely to be users, as they often lack advanced training in education and would benefit from the professional development support. Tweet
• Observation: OER are well-positioned to help educators in high poverty schools that lack adequate resources. Teaching artists in public schools across the country are also likely to be users, as they often lack advanced training in education and would benefit from the professional development support. Tweet
• Challenge: Of the collections of music OER reviewed, few support contribution of user original content, few are aligned to state or national music standards, and about half are unclear about the terms of use regarding sharing and remixing. Tweet
• Challenge: Of the collections of music OER reviewed, few support contribution of user original content, few are aligned to state or national music standards, and about half are unclear about the terms of use regarding sharing and remixing. Tweet