"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."
– UNESCO
Consider this short video to learn more about OER.
(UNESCO) Open Educational Resources Concept: What is an OER? (0:58) [CC BY]
To build sustainable, strong, and resilient societies, we need to be able to access and share knowledge openly. Open educational resources allow us to do so. Open educational resources (OER) are 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. An open license respects the intellectual property rights of the copyright owner. It provides permissions granting the public the rights to access, reuse, repurpose, adapt, and redistribute educational materials. Open educational resources support quality education that is equitable, inclusive, open, and participatory.
The adaptation of existing OER and the creation of new resources are also opportunities to make course materials more accessible, inclusive, and representative for learners. This kind of flexibility rarely exists in traditional textbooks. Because OER are not created to satisfy a commercial market, they can address topics and include perspectives that would otherwise be neglected.
Consider this short video to learn more about the benefits of OER.
(UNESCO) Open Educational Resources and Innovation: Why OER (1:17) [CC BY]
Open educational resources are central for the development of inclusive knowledge societies and to help achieve the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, especially to reach SDG4, SDG5, STG9, SDG10, SDG16, and SDG17. To support universal access to information and knowledge and to transform economies and societies, it is important to innovate. To foster innovation, one of the major challenges is to create the conditions for access to and use of quality knowledge. Because open educational resources are free to access, reuse, repurpose, adapt, and to redistribute, they can reduce the cost for the development of educational materials, be adapted easily to different learning contexts, and help to develop gender sensitive materials and alternative and accessible formats for learners with special needs. Governmental and institutional investments can be enhanced for socioeconomic growth by accessing a variety of innovative pedagogical options.
Open educational resources are somewhat different from open learning, in that they are primarily content, while open learning includes both content and educational services, such as specially designed online materials, built-in learner support and assessment.
David Wiley is one of the pioneers of OER. He suggests that there are five core principles of open publishing, better known as the 5Rs:
Review the following Principles of OER as they expand on the original 5R's as described by David Wiley.
Select each item to learn more.
OER are freely accessible to anyone and removes financial barriers that often reduce access to education. This enables learners from diverse backgrounds to engage with high-quality educational content.
OER provide opportunities to adapt, adopt, modify and remix learning materials, which allows educators to customize the materials to suit their specific teaching contexts. This flexibility promotes personalized learning experiences.
OER encourage collaboration among educators, learners, and content creators. Communities can contribute to the improvement and expansion of existing resources, fostering a sense of shared knowledge creation.
OER can be localized and translated to accommodate different languages, cultures, and educational needs, ensuring that education is accessible to a global audience.
OER can potentially reduce the need for continually creating new resources from scratch, which can help in conserving resources and reducing waste.
As mentioned above, OER reduce and in many cases eliminate the cost of expensive commercial textbooks and other learning materials. This makes education more affordable for learners who might otherwise struggle to access post-secondary education.
"Adaptability and affordability are two major aspects of what makes an open educational resource attractive to students, but there is another facet that should be considered when you are developing or adapting an OER for your course: perspective. In particular, you should ask yourself how the perspectives being represented in your OER might affect the inclusivity of your course environment."
Indeed, educators who embrace OER can adapt and modify the content so they can accommodate a variety of cultural backgrounds and principles of universal design for learning (UDL). OER offers the opportunity to provide flexible and customizable resources to address the needs of all students. OER that incorporate UDL principles makes it possible to designing resources that benefit people of various learning backgrounds and abilities. With open licenses, OER provide access to editable files for the development of multiple formats which can be difficult to obtain for proprietary materials. While OER benefits all students by reducing educational cost barriers, they can especially benefit students with disabilities who often face greater financial difficulties. Finally, OER offers the opportunity for collaborative creation across institutions, countries, and the world to ensure the OER developed incorporates the expertise and experiences of people both creating and using the resources.
Module 3 - Accessibility focuses on measures you should take to make OER accessible.
Reflect on how these OER benefits might apply at your institution and share your thoughts in a Padlet.