OER- Open Educational Resources

OER refers to the bank of teaching and learning materials available for free use such as copying, editing, customizing, sharing, modifying, and distributing. OER being free for use is considered under the public domain as there is no license fee for copyright. OER consists of the following 3 areas:

1. Learning content such as taped video, modules, lecture notes, textbook, articles from journals, worked exercise, classroom activities, quiz, syllabi and discussed case studies, journals.

2. Software tools available for designing and developing courses, CMS, LCMS for online learning.

3. Implementation resources: Intellectual property, techniques, methods of design learning environment.
OER are becoming popular as they enhance learning by providing a new way of searching for information without barriers. Personally I feel that students tend to become more independent learners in developing the habit of finding information on their own. Moreover they achieve good social qualities by sharing information with peers especially in online communities. OER bridge the gap between a small pool to an ocean of information with no cost. Uses of OER innovate teaching and learning. Teachers can easily update information in open text books rather than losing time and money for a new edition to be available on the market. Moreover OER allows collaboration among its user though they may be from different countries, institution or from other educational field.

Important issues to be considered for OER:

1. The technical and pedagogical quality of materials presented should be verified. OER should be checked for quality assurance regularly to make sure the information provided is accurate, true, reliable and valid. The content in OER should be reviewed by a qualified member in the educational sector before publishing.

2. The reputation of the author is to be considered so as to ensure quality of the OER.

3. To ensure quality, the resources should be self assessed by the producer, reviewed by the institutions before release, rated and commented by communities and finally analysed by individuals using the resources.

4. Not all student or school can have accessed to OER because of lack of technology facilities.

5. Even if the materials available are free, there is a significant fee for administrative procedures. Lets take the example of the Bsc in Educational and Instructional technologies course, the course materials (OER) may be available freely for lecturers to put on the platform as resources but we have had to pay around Rs62,000 for the two years of course delivery. However it should be considered that paying Rs62, 000 for studying for a degree in 2 years time is quite cheap compared to other courses provided by the University of Mauritius. Or let’s compare the BSc in educational and Instructional technologies’ fee to any degree course offered by UNISA, the latter would cost approximately Rs180, 000 for 3 years of study.

6. Some OER have to be adapted by teachers based on students learning needs


Open educational resources are one of the ingredients that contribute to the success of the education sector. Sharing of knowledge make people learn more and better. Internet is free, so why not make use of it to built a better generation of teachers and learners.

While studying for the OER module in BSc Ed Tech, as group work, my peers and I prepared some presentations, below are the link to them.

http://www.slideshare.net/shahinalalloo/the-middle-ofopenspaces

http://www.slideshare.net/shahinalalloo/ppt-on-chapter22



Ref: http://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com/Quality-considerations http://infosherpas.com/ojs/index.php/openandlibraries/article/viewFile/44/66