Open Education Resources

Definition

“OER 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 and 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.” (Hewlett Foundation, 2019)

For the purposes of this course, we understand OER as materials that are not only freely available in either printed or digital form, but also those that allow for sharing and editing (i.e. the creation of one’s own work by using them). We consider OER to be all resources that are listed under an open license, which makes the aforementioned possible.

LITERATURE: Hewlett Foundation. OER Defined. https://www.hewlett.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/OER-strategy-memo.pdf

Basic characteristics of OER

Prominent OER researcher David Wiley (2014) lists several characteristics that a resource should fulfill to be considered an OER: 

• The right to be reused. 

• Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, edit, 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 open content to create something new. 

• Distribute. The right to share copies of the original content, revisions, or remixes with others

(e.g. give a copy of the content to a friend).

• Retain. The possibility of downloading and saving content.

LITERATURE: Wiley, D., Bliss, T. J., & McEwen, M. (2014). Open Educational Resources: a review of the literature. In Handbook of research on educational communications and technology (781-789). New York: Springer.

Benefits of OER

Open educational resources based on Mediawiki software offer a score of benefits, the most significant of which are listed in the following: 

Benefits

• Cost saving. Study materials that are online can lead to cost saving for both institutions and students.

• Easy to update. In the present and quickly transforming world, knowledge becomes quickly outdated, and therefore frequent updates are necessary, which Mediawiki software (MWS)-based resources are ideal for. 

• Easy editing for specific purposes. A teacher can edit a textbook (by shortening, adding or otherwise modifying) for the purposes of his/her course. 

• Higher effectiveness. Via hyperlinks and links, students can reach information that interests them and surpass the framework of study material (much more easily than in classic print). It is also possible to assume that the specifics of OER environments help students better understand contexts and place problems into them. OER can also help interdisciplinary thinking and the development of so-called “active learning” (or inquiry-based learning). 

• Change of media. Today’s students are growing up in a world in which they spend more time from a young age on digital platforms than with traditional books. A classic educational text can be less attractive to them. Students become used to the wiki environment from a young age. 

• Decrease in the burden on the environment. As requirements for content editing grow, so do the costs of recycling it. The whole life cycle of textbooks (paper, print, logistics, sales) represents an environmental burden. Although also a certain burden, a personal computer (or tablet) has become a life necessity in the present age. If students already have these devices, they can limit the use of printed materials. 

• Contribution to society’s knowledge. OERs support the process of life-long learning in regard to the creation of space for broad participation. 

Negatives of OER

• Easy content editing. A text can frequently be changed by anyone at any time, which can have a negative effect on its quality. If, for example, a teacher reads a text in a resource and then refers students to it, it can change within moments without the teacher’s knowing (this, however, can be dealt with by referring students to a specific version of the page used by the teacher). 

• The problem of guaranteeing quality. Changes would have to be regularly monitored by someone, which would be time consuming. 

• Problems with authorship – should an author be listed under a text when anonymous editors can significantly change it without his/her knowledge?