OERs

Open educational Resources (OER)

Definition: Open Educational Resources (OERs) are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them.

Description: Open Educational Resources are teaching , learning and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use or re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials or, techniques used to support access to knowledge. Users of open educational resources have free (no-cost) access to the materials and free (no-cost) permission to engage in their activities when using them.  OER is a way to make sure every student has access to course material, with cost taken out of the equation. Also OER allows faculty to create material that is customized for Their Classes. Where most textbooks will have their strengths and weaknesses, OER material allows a faculty member to pull only strong material into their class.

History: In 2001, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in an unprecedented move, announced the release of nearly all its courses on the internet for free access. As the number of institutions offering free or open courseware increased. Open Educational Resources have been available online for the more than a decade. In recent years, several foundations have made significant financial investments to produce new high-quality Open Educational Resources that can be used in both formal and informal learning environments.

Small video on Open educational resources:

Advantages:

·         Saves costs for students 

·         Adapt and improve the Open Educational Resource so it better meets your needs

·         Helps preparation for course and retention of knowledge after course

·         Showcases research to widest possible audience

·         Enhances a university’s reputation as well as that of the teacher or researcher

·         Social responsibility – provides education for all

·         Shares best practice internationally

·         Maximizes the use and  increases availability of educational materials

·         Raises standard of educational resources by gathering more contributors

Leading OER’s (Open Educational Resources):

·        MIT OpenCourseWare

·        Connexions

·        MITx

·        OER Commons

·        National Academies Press

·        Khan Academy

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Reference: https://training.instructure.com/courses/1276118/pages/what-are-the-benefits-in-using-oer