Open Educational Resources (OERs) are a type of educational materials that have been licensed openly so that anyone can use them without having to pay royalty.
The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation.
Watch the videos from the list below to learn more about OERs and its potential.
The video explains the usage of Open Education Resources for K-12 education and how beneficial it gets in terms of cost efficiency. The State of Washington has already developed these resources for higher education at a one-time cost of $750,000, which means $41M savings per year for college students for the cost of textbooks. The Open Education Resources textbooks have already been developed in many subjects in K-12. The textbooks are free in digital version.
Nicole Allen, director of open education, SPARC speaks about ways to incorporate open educational resources (OER) into higher education curriculum. She also explains how beneficial OERs are for students as they can access unlimited data and learn from vast information. The main focus is on how OERs reduce the financial burden placed on students maintaining the quality of education for all.
In this video, Sthephen Downes, a designer and commentator in the fields of online learning and new media talks about the real resources of the Personal Learning and The Role of Open Education on Personal Learning. According to Downes personal learning should be seen from the perspective of learner and not the institution.“The product of personal learning is not learning properly, the product is the learner itself, some form of individual growth and development,” he adds. He explains the role OERs play in personalized learning.
The basic idea of this video is making the user aware about the purpose of OERs. Unlike textbooks OERs provide free learning opportunities for users giving them access to unlimited data of any time. User gets access to unlimited knowledge via OERs.
The video shows how OER can provide access to quality education worldwide. The data relating to a subject increases as sources are added to a particular subject and are passed on. OERs are knowledge at a public level reaching everyone around the globe.
The video highlights the following features of the OERs:
- Easily accessible.
- Cost efficient.
- Teachers learn along with the students.
- Everyone can learn his or her way.
- Unlimited data with continuous add-ons gives access to vast knowledge.
OERs: The new system of education helps educators deliver high quality education to all via Internet. This is the most efficient way of providing education. Students get to learn from the highest qualified professors from anywhere.
Some of the best universities of US like Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley, Princeton, MIT, and YALE are already adapting to the trends of OERs and sharing their courses online.
OpenStax College adopted OERs for their teaching method and has delivered millions of students with free high quality educational content by recognized faculty. The textbooks provided by college via Internet are a big hit helping learners around the globe. The most important thing is that OERs are the saviors for those who cannot afford expensive textbooks and gives them the opportunity and access to high quality education they deserve.
Four R’s of OERs:
Reuse, Redistribute, Revise and Remix. The video gives an inside out knowledge about OERs. The crux of the matter is that this awesome technique should be adopted in our teaching system ASAP for the optimum utilization of the web and for the betterment of teachers and learners.
OER is a transformational idea that enables learners and educators to bring a change about the outlook of education.
So, which video did you like the most? Let us know in the comment box below.
