There is increasing interest in the open learning field about the sharing of educational resources and tools. Open Educational Resources (OERs) are digitised learning materials that are offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use, adapt and re-use for teaching, learning and research.
Computers, bandwidth, tools and implementation resources are critical to this development because they allow open content to be accessed and used. For example, teachers have to be able to search for potentially useful resources, and these resources need to be in formats that enable them to be adapted and reused. The Creative Commons license makes resources legally available for adaptation and reuse.
OERs are typically stored in databases, or repositories. Each institution that creates OERs usually also stores their materials in their own database, sometimes called a "learning object repository" (LOR). Making OERs accessible to indexing engines like the COL Knowledge Finder is critical to enabling educators to quickly find and download resources.
There are many benefits arising from creating, using and adapting OERs. For example, there is increased collegiality and online co-operation among educators who share in the development of learning resources and increased quality as learning materials move out of the private classroom into the public domain. More importantly from COL's point of view is the potential of OERs to provide knowledge and learning resources that would otherwise remain inaccessible.
OERs also offer developing countries a level playing field for collaborating in the creation of learning material. Educators in industrialised countries have few advantages over those in developing countries when they collaborate online. Materials can be infinitely customised, providing that the appropriate free content license is used. The OER movement thus enables developing countries to lead developments and contribute to the global knowledge community as active partners and not passive consumers of others' "knowledge". In other words, this development has the potential to empower educators in the smallest countries and democratise the creation of knowledge itself.
However creating OERs and LORs is not enough. There are enormous issues of connectivity that currently severely restrict Internet access in the developing world. But in addition to this there are other issues:
- The producers of materials need to consider their likely users - the learners and learning facilitators. The contributors must provide adaptable materials that are of good quality. The recipients must be able to legally use these materials (requiring the correct copyright licenses) and adapt them (requiring editable formats and the underlying digital assets - graphics, etc.). It requires that educators have access to computers and the Internet.
- Educators must receive training and support, and institutions must have the required computer equipment and cost-effective bandwidth.
- There are huge implications for the ongoing management and quality assurance of the materials. Without this, the potential of OERs will not be realised. One of the problems that killed off the idea of teachers' centres 30 years ago in the UK (a concept not at all different from the learning repositories for OERs) was that the expense of managing the systems, even on a volunteer basis, could not be sustained once the contents got large and the initial enthusiasm waned. Fortunately, people are working on solutions to this problem, but it remains a significant risk factor.
- While OERs clearly can add significantly to the provision of open and distance learning (ODL), they cannot take the place of institutional provision. This is because OERs are addressing course needs and not the other critical components of successful ODL provision, such as the administrative systems that underpin ODL and learner support that contributes to successful learning.
OERs are making a massive - some might say a revolutionary - contribution to ODL provision. But in order for OERs to remain an important component of the overall ODL system, institutions need to integrate OERs into existing systems so that they add capacity and improve the teaching and learning experience.