Open Educational Resources

 what is Open Educational Resources ?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others.

Scope of OER

Open educational resources (OER) are part of a "range of processes employed by researchers and educators to broaden access to scholarly and creative conversations. Although working definitions of the term OER may vary somewhat based on the context of their use,the 2019 definition provided by UNESCO provides shared language useful for shaping an understanding of the characteristics of OER. The 2019 unesco definition describes OER as "teaching, learning and research materials that make use of appropriate tools, such as open licensing, to permit their free reuse, continuous improvement and repurposing by others for educational purposes."

While collaboration, sharing, and openness have "been an ongoing feature of educational" and research practices "past and present", the term "OER" was first coined to describe associated resources at UNESCO's 2002 Forum on Open Courseware, which determined that "Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others."

Often cited is the 2007 report to the willian and fllora  foundation which defined OER as "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." The Foundation later updated its definition to describe OER as "teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions." Of note in that definition is the explicit statement that OER can include both digital and non-digital resources, as well as the inclusion of several types of use that OER permit, inspired by 5R activities of OER. In a 2022 overview of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's activities supporting open education since 2002, the Foundation describes OER as "freely licensed, remixable learning resources", further including the creative common definition of OER as "teaching, learning, and research materials that are either (a) in the public domain or (b) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities – retaining, remixing, revising, reusing and redistributing the resources."

The 5R activities/permissions mentioned in the definitions above were proposed by david , and include:

• Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
• Reuse – the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
• Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
• Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
• Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend).

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF OER

• Expanded access to learning – can be accessed anywhere at any time
• Ability to modify course materials – can be narrowed down to topics that are relevant to course
• Enhancement of course material – texts, images and videos can be used to support different approaches to learning
• Rapid dissemination of information – textbooks can be put forward quicker online than publishing a textbook
• Cost saving for students – all readings are available online, which saves students hundreds of dollars
• Cost savings for educators - lectures and lessons plans are available online, saving educator time, effort and money, while learning new knowledge
• Consolidate the foundation for more reproducible and inclusive science
• Improve the quality of research produced by future generation of researchers
• Removes barriers to entry and facilitate career progression by offering students to be involved in knowledge generation, enhancing diversity and representation within science.

Challenges of using OER include:

• Quality/reliability concerns – some online material can be edited by anyone at anytime, which may result in irrelevant or inaccurate information
• Limitation of copyright property protection – OER licenses change "All rights reserved." into "Some rights reserved.", so that content creators must be intentional about what materials they make available
• Technology issues – some students may have difficulty accessing online resources because of slow internet connection, or may not have access to the software required to use the materials
• Languages in which OER are distributed – use of English as primary language of delivery may limit its use
• Awareness within educational institutions– limits use of OER for research, teaching and learning.

Conclusion of Open Educational Resources

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Their general conclusion is: Once adopted, OER provide the permissions necessary for faculty to engage in a wide range of pedagogical innovations. In each of the studies reported above, OER were used in manner very similar to the traditional textbooks they replaced.