Open educational resources

 
                                                       Open educational resources

                        Open Educational Resources are teaching and learning materials that are freely available online for everyone to use, whether you are an instructor, student or self-learner. Examples of OER include: full courses, course modules, syllabi, lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, lab and classroom activities, pedagogical materials, games, simulations, and many more resources contained in digital media collections from around the world.

                         A range of 'Open' philosophies and models have emerged during the 20th Century as a result of several different drivers and motivations - including sharing freely, preventing duplication, avoiding restrictive  (Copyright) practices, promoting economic efficiencies and improving access to wide groups of stakeholders. Many of these have been driven by and created by communities that recognise the benefits to themselves, and sometimes to wider groups. Some of these are listed below:

• Open source (relating to business and technology)
• Open source software
• Open source hardware
• Open standards
• Open access (research)
• Open design
• Open knowledge

 

The following definitions and examples are taken from a paper prepared by Li Yuan at JISC CETIS in 2008 concerning the state of open educational resources internationally. This well-received paper can be accessed from the CETIS website.

The term Open Educational Resources (OER) was first introduced at a conference hosted by UNESCO in 2000 and was promoted in the context of providing free access to educational resources on a global scale. As mentioned above, there is no authoritatively accredited definition for the term OER at present, with the OECD preferring, 'digitised materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning and research' (OECD, 2007). Stephen Downes presents a useful overview of what Open Educational Resources are in Open Education: Projects and Potential.

• In the United States resources from thousands of courses have been made available by university-based projects, such as MIT OpenCourseWare and Rice University’s Connexions project: (http://ocw.mit.edu/, http://cnx.rice.edu/ )

• In China, materials from 750 courses have been made available by 222 university members of the China Open Resources for Education (CORE) consortium.(http://www.core.org.cn/en/).

• In Japan, resources from more than 400 courses have been made available by the19 member universities of the Japanese OCW Consortium. (http://www.jocw.jp/).

       What are the drawbacks of open educational resources?