Open Textbooks: Why? What? How? When?
The cost of traditional textbooks has skyrocketed. The effect of this increase in cost, and the reasons for it, are somewhat different in higher education than in K-12 education. The cost of textbooks in higher education is usually borne directly by the students and their parents, and it is now a noticeable fraction of the total and rapidly increasing cost of higher education. The average... more
Open Educational Resources: The Way Forward. Deliberations of an International Community of Interest
The term Open Educational Resources (OER) was adopted at a UNESCO meeting in 2002 to refer to the open provision of educational resources, enabled by information and communication technologies, for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes. The participants expressed “their wish to develop together a universal educational resource available for the... more
Open Educational Resources: Conversations in Cyberspace
The term /Open Educational Resources/ (OER) was coined in 2002 during the UNESCO Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries, convened to consider the potential, for developing countries, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) initiative to put course materials online for open access. The participants in the meeting defined Open Educational... more
Open Educational Resources - Opportunities and Challenges for Higher Education
Between 2005 and 2007, a large Community of Interest of more than 600 members from more than half of the 192 Member States of UNESCO took part in online discussions on Open Educational Resources (OER) – open content for education. This document is a testament to the power of group deliberation in a vibrant virtual community. It presents the way forward for OER based upon the informed opinion... more
Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources
Learning resources are often considered key intellectual property in a competitive higher education world. However, more and more institutions and individuals are sharing their digital learning resources over the Internet, openly and for free, as Open Educational Resources (OER). This study, building on previous OECD work on e-learning, asks why this is happening, who is involved and what... more
Models for Sustainable Open Educational Resources
This paper depicts the sustainability of Open Educational Resources (OERs) in terms of the three models: funding, technical, and content. Discussion and recommendations are focused on the sustainability of OERs and the requirement that we think of OERs as only part of a larger picture – one that includes volunteers and incentives, community and partnerships, co-production and sharing,... more
On OERs: Five ideas to guide engagement with the Open Educational Resources 'movement'
This brief paper was developed in response to the launching of the Cape Town Declaration that set itself up as a manifesto of a 'movement', the 'open education movement'.It describes five ideas that SAIDE regards as important in engaging with the OER 'movement'. more
A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievements, Challenges and New Opportunities. Report to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
In 2002 the Education Program of the Hewlett Foundation introduced a major component into its strategic plan "Using Information Technology to Increase Access to High Quality Educational Content". This review of the Open Educational Resources Movement begins with this plan as a baseline. more
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