Understanding OER
Need to know more about Open Educational Resources (OER)? There is currently a lot of buzz about OER. Educators being compelled by the argument for using existing OER and releasing their own materials with an open licence. As a result, the number of resources being shared under an open licence has increased exponentially. In May 2017, Creative Commons estimated that there were 1.4 billion open resources. But, what exactly are OER and do they live up to the hype?
Click here to access a PDF version of our Understanding OER Guide.
In the following topics, we will explain the concept and help you understand OER. These OER topics have been divided into two tracks designed to support different orientations:
Practice Track (1-6)
Aimed at people who will be interacting with OER directly, such as course and materials developers, teachers and lecturers, who are essentially OER users. These topics aim to provide skills to find, evaluate, adapt and distribute OER.
Trends Track (A-E)
Aimed at people who are interested in OER as a movement and are wanting to investigate how best to encourage the growth of local, national, and regional communities of practice. This would include policy makers, education support staff, and researchers. Topics here focus on changing patterns of use, identifying exemplary OER initiatives, developments in open licensing, and adoption rates for African academics and institutions.
Track or Specific Topic
The tracks provide a suggested route through the topics, but you can work through both tracks in whatever way suits your needs best.