Open Educational Resources

What is OER?

UNESCO sites in 2001, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in an unprecedented move, announced the release of nearly all its courses on the internet for free access. As the number of institutions offering free or open courseware increased, UNESCO organized the 1st Global OER Forum in 2002 where the term Open Educational Resources (OER) was adopted.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are free educational materials and resources offered for anyone to use and in some cases, under license agreements, to re-mix, improve and redistribute. OERs are part of an Internet-empowered worldwide community effort to create an education commons.

The term “open educational resources” was first adopted at UNESCO’s 2002 Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. OERs include:

Learning content: full courses, course materials, content modules, learning objects, collections, and journals;

Tools: Software to support the creation, delivery, use, and improvement of open learning content such as search/organization engines, content and learning management systems, content development tools, and on-line learning communities; and

Implementation Resources: Intellectual property licenses to promote open publishing of materials, design-principles, and localization of content.

What is OER?

Yes. OERs are really free. This is clearly defined within the Open Educational Licenses (similar to a Creative Commons license) of the participating group. AcrossWorld provides access to this OER content through our infrastructure, but we do not charge for the content component. More