Third place winner of the "Why Open Education Resources Matters" contest, Nadia Mireless, 2012
Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials and resources offered freely and openly for anyone to use and under some liceses to re-mix, improve and redistribute. They include:
Learning Content : full courses, course material, content modules, learning objects, collections, and journals.
Tools: software to support the creation, delivery, use and improvement of open learning contents including searching, learning management systemes, content development and online learning communities
Implementation resources: intellectual property licenses to promote open publishing of materials, design-principles, and localization of content.
WHY OER?
OER is a relatively new movment in education, educators and learners as well as learning institutions are driving its development. OER provides an alternative to the rising costs of education, and provides and opportunity to try new ways of teaching and learning, many of which are more collaborative and participatory.