Introduction to
Open Educational Resources (OER)
Open educational resources (OER) have received attention for their ability to serve as an equitable and accessible alternative to the rising costs and increased commercialization and privatization of education. For educators and students, the proliferation of OER collections and repositories has meant centralised access to materials and the possibility of collaborating and sharing with others.
Educational scholars and members of new OER communities have suggested several new models-ranging from "educational mashup" sites, which though common understanding and interfacing allow content to flow from place to place so that users can easily pull and integrate content across multiple collections, to "micro-sites" that serve as a single point of entry across multiple collections and allow educators and learners to impact educational resources with their own vocabulary, content, and metadata experience.
| OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES (OER) | |
|---|---|
| ORGNISATION | RESOURCES |
| BBC Open Archive | Archive of multimedia and other
content from several leading institutions across the U.K., most
notably the BBC and BFI. |
| COSL | Community of practice built
around open source education. |
| OER Commons | Teaching and learning network,
from K-12 lesson plans. |
| Teachers TV | Open video content for educators across the U.K. Includes footage for classroom use as well as on demand professional development courses. |
| Kitzu | Create multi-media content for your classroom. |
| Bookyards | Thousands of online books, video,
eBooks, links and access to online libraries. |
| Google Books | Google has digitised many books
from library collections, including hundreds of books related to
Old English literature: editions, & translations. |
| International Digital | Features children's books from
around the world, Children's Library selected by kids and
adults. |
| The Oz Project | This Australian site celebrates
online curriculum projects and the world of unique learning
opportunities. |
| Smithsonian.TV | Live and archived events and
multimedia at the Smithsonian Institution. |
| A web-based collection of
approximately 1,800 books & pamphlets, 6,000 photographs, 200
maps, & 13,000 pages from manuscript & archival collections
from Harvard's library, archives & museums. |
|
| Wikiversity | Create and share open content
multimedia. |
| Wikibooks | Open content textbooks. |
| Connextions | Founded by Rice University, this
site is a place to share and create open educational resources
(OER). |
| Librivox | Digital library of free public
domain audio books that are read and recorded by volunteers. |
| Open Source Teaching Project | The Open Source Teaching Project
is a volunteer collaborative focused on creating meaningful
educational bridges among traditionally disconnected networks. |
