Open Educational Resources

The William and Flora Hewitt Foundation defines Open Education as the teaching model encompassing the "myriad of learning resources, teaching practices and education policies that use the flexibility of OER to provide learners with high-quality educational experiences."

UNESCO and the Creative Commons both define Open Educational Resources (OER) as "teaching, learning, and research materials that are either (a) in the public domain or (b) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities– retaining, remixing, revising, reusing and redistributing the resources."

Open Education and OERs are both intended to improve worldwide education opportunities by facilitating access to high-quality information resources and learning tools to all students regardless of their personal economic circumstances.

A common misconception is that OERs are limited to textbooks. Open textbooks are the most abundant OER type, but other resources, such as complete courses, lectures, modules, homework assignments, quiz and test banks, simulations, and lab activities, can also be classified as OER. Any material that is designed to facilitate instruction and learning can be considered an open resource if it has an open license granting users the 5 Rs of OER.

OER materials are made publicly available under an open license granting permission to anyone to:

• Retain - make, own, and control a copy of the resource
• Revise - edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource
• Remix - combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material to create something new
• Reuse - use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly 
• Redistribute - share copies of your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others 

-- from http://opencontent.org/definition/

Benefits to Students

• affordability
• immediate access
• convenience
• opportunity to contribute to teaching materials (potential)
• increased exposure to multiple modes of delivery (potential)

Benefits to Faculty

• customized
• reusable
• can be updated quickly
• increased flexibility
• increase opportunities for interdisciplinary connections
• can incorporate multiple formats and delivery modes
• peer collaboration and networking opportunities
• ensures students have immediate access
• help students financially
• attract and retain students

Benefits to Institution

• demonstrated efforts at improving college affordability
• facilitates student success
• increased reputation
• increased dissemination of information produced on campus
• democratizes learning
• demonstrated social justice activity

Though OER has been around for a while, there are still a number of challenges out there obstructing its development and implementation across academia. Notable of these are:

• Significant gaps in subject coverage. Some subjects lack high-quality OER.
• Finding OERs in subject areas requires searches in multiple locator tools.
• Minimal variety in format availability and technology barriers. Though OER encompasses all formats, only a handful are regularly used.
• Some formats are unfamiliar to students, making them difficult to access and use.
• Poor version control. Remixing enables the proliferation of versions, increasing the importance of quality assessment.
• Obtaining a print copy when desired can be difficult.
• Faculty have to assess and revise their course structure to fit the new pedagogical approach.
• Change is difficult, so faculty and students both can be uncomfortable adjusting to the new tools and methods. 
• Limited acceptance and recognition in many academic programs as well as in faculty promotion and tenure practices.

In addition to these challenges, numerous myths and misconceptions about OERs abound that also interfere with OER growth and acceptance.

See an excellent rebuttal from SPARC HERE