Learning Objectives
At the end of this module, you will be able to
- List the characteristics of an open educational resource (OER)
- Discuss the benefits of open
- Compare different open licenses
What is open?
When something is described as “open”, it means that it has been made available with little to no restrictions for other people to access or use. Open can also describe practices, means, and methods that support the idea that knowledge and learning should be available to everyone by reducing barriers to share, access, and use.
Open Education encompasses resources, tools and practices that are free of legal, financial and technical barriers and can be fully used, shared and adapted in the digital environment. Open Education maximizes the power of the Internet to make education more affordable, accessible and effective.
– SPARC
An educational resource can be more or less open depending on what people are allowed to do with it. There are 5 core activities (5Rs) that people use open educational resources (OERs) for:
- Retain – make, own, and control a copy of the resource (e.g., download and keep your own copy)
- Revise – edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource (e.g., translate into another language)
- Remix – combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material to create something new (e.g., make a mashup)
- Reuse – use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g., on a website, in a presentation, in a class)
- Redistribute – share copies of your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others (e.g., post a copy online or give one to a friend)
The ability for people to use an OER in any of these ways will be determined by what license the creator has chosen to put on the object.
Take a moment
Do you already participate in some of these activities?
Why is open valuable?
One of the driving factors for the adoption of OER, such as open textbooks, is they are free. But cost savings is not the only benefit of using OER – they are an essential part of open pedagogy and can be used to create a powerful learning experience for your students. Studies have revealed a “positive relationship between the use of OER and student academic achievement” [PDF] and suggest that OER may help to decrease withdrawal rates while increasing overall student grades.
OER can:
- Increase access to education
- Provide students with an opportunity to assess and plan their education choices
- Showcase an institution’s intellectual outputs, promote its profile, and attract students
- Convert students exploring options into fee paying enrollments
- Accelerate learning by providing educational resources for just-in-time, direct, informal use by both students and self-directed learners
- Add value to knowledge production
- Reduce faculty preparation time
- Save students a significant amount of cost – (this case has been particularly substantiated for open textbooks)
- Enhance quality
- Generate inn