Open Educational Resources

Throughout the history of education, the educators and scholars have been struggling to get rid of any censorship imposed over the flow of knowledge and information. The sharing and reuse of educational resources by academics is not new; however the practice has become much more popular and feasible now that these materials are shared online. Open educational resources (OER) are freely available online learning and teaching materials. For example; full courses, course modules, lectures, games, teaching materials and assignments. They can take the form of text, images, audio, or video. They can also create highly interactive and collaborative learning environment. Teachers, administration, and students used to access information primarily from their own institution. Moreover, now they have access to a multitude of sources. Consequently, it has become even more important for those who want to reuse educational resources. A need has arisen for creators of educational resources to develop a better understanding of how to share their work. When the first full Jorum service became available, the intention was to provide a safe environment for educators to share materials. They used the licenses to restrict the access rather than permitting it. The launch of Jorum Open established a new approach, where all resources were shared by using an open license system. Teachers, learners and everyone in the public can access and make use of open educational resources. Individuals and organizations can create or/and share their own OER. However, we should know that releasing open educational resources is not only sharing some materials, we should also make it available in a truly open way. It is about retaining copyright so that others can copy it and make some uses of it. Open educational resources are shared via the websites of education providers and through public services like i-Tunes U, SlideShare, YouTube and Jorum. These resources considered to be rich educational packages that facilitate the learning process. In 2002 The Hewlett Foundation funds two major Open Course Ware initiatives: 1) MIT OpenCourseWare, free web-based course materials from subjects taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The university would go on to publish materials from virtually its entire curriculum. 2) Carnegie Mellon University Open Learning Initiative, offering online courses for learners and teachers. In 2002-2006 Jisc eXchange for Learning (X4L) programme starts to share small units of teaching material created with a view to being repurposed and reused. Above all, the open resources may have some negative aspects. For example, we cannot use any shared material because not all the resources are good or highly qualified. Finally, I think OER are essential part in our education as learners and educators. Having the online libraries save the time of the students and provide necessary information from different sources. It enriches our knowledge and broadens our view by expanding our educational scope. Despite some disadvantages of open educational resources, I use OER in my education and teaching for different purposes. We can overcome the limitations by monitoring the work of our children or learners.

You can visit this site to get access to more sources http://edge-op.org/grouch/schools.html