Open Educational Resources 101: Unveiling Their Potential

In this article, we will understand the meaning of open educational resources, their different types, and how to use them. Let’s get started.

What are open educational resources?

What do you mean by open educational resources?

What are the types of open educational resources?

There are many types of open education resources, and we are going to discuss some of these types here:

1- Learning modules

2- Open textbooks.

Either way, it is a helpful way to learn and increase your knowledge.

 3- Open access journals.

This type of open resource education refers to the research journals and articles that are available online for free. By using this type of resource, you can do the research you were asked to do in college, or learn from it and use it to gain more knowledge about something that interests you.

4- Online tutorials.

Online tutorials are videos and materials that are made for the purpose of self-study learning. They can be delivered through a course management system, the internet, or DVDs. And there are two types of online tutorials that are used for open educational resources, and they are:

Recorded tutorials: recorded tutorials are video recordings of an expert explaining something or giving a demonstration.

Interactive tutorials: they are organized in a structured way as you can navigate through pages, or on the same page you will find a collection of videos, texts, images, and so on.

What is the role of open educational resources?

The main important thing about open educational resources is that they are free for everyone, they can be used to gain all the information you need. It’s really helpful to students and helps them in their learning journey. Here are some of its roles in our lives:

•       Free to use.
•       Can access anything you want at any time.
•       Help students make plans for their education.

Which resource is an example of OER?

There are many examples of OER (open educational resources), and they can be accessed at any time and can be shared with others easily. So, here are some examples of it.

•       Online courses.
•       Videos.
•       Audio.
•       Presentation slides.
•       Course outlines.
•       Textbooks.
•       Tutorials.
•       Images.

How is OER used in the classroom?

Instructors or teachers can use open resource materials effectively to enhance students’ understanding. For example, a teacher can explain an experiment and then show a video of someone performing the experiment. Or teach them about how a machine works then show them videos to make students understand better. People tend to remember visuals more than text. As a teacher, you will find many free resources that could be valuable to students. Additionally, you can edit the OER as much as you want and share it with them.

How do you identify open educational resources?

Here are the characteristics of OER According to Schaffert & Geser, 2008 & OLCOS Roadmap, 2012:

1. Open Access: Content is provided free of charge for educational institutions, content services, and users such as teachers, students, and lifelong learners.
2. Open Format: Content is produced in an open format with functionalities that allows for easy re-use.
3. Open License: Liberal licenses to enable re-use to combine and re-purposing of content.
4. Open Software: Produced with open-source software.

Let’s Simplify

To simplify things, you can think of OER falling into the category of either content or tools:

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Conclusion.