Benefits of OER
Benefits for learners using OER
- reduction of costs (e.g. textbooks)
- accessing to/applying knowledge in a wider context than a course
- freedom of access in time (preferred time and date) and space (e.g. at work/home/on placement)
- enhanced opportunities for learning
- support for learner-centered, self-directed, peer-to-peer and social/informal learning approaches
- opportunity to test out course materials before enrolling and compare with other similar courses
- opportunities to be involved in OER initiatives either through contributing towards OER development, testing or evaluation, marketing activities, or acting as an ambassador for OER with other learners or staff
(modified and integrated from list available at http://openeducationalresources.pbworks.com)
Learning with OER
This video from Lumen Learning shows how students can be more successful in classes that use OER than classes that use commercially published textbooks.
OER for Learners
Watch this YouTube video from intheacademia to find out more about the value of OER for learners.
Open Education Matters
This video demonstrates how OER can remove barriers of high cost and out-of-date materials.
Find OER for Learners
- OER CommonsOER Commons was founded in 2007 and continues to offer curated OER. Resources can be browsed by filters like subject areas, education and grade levels, materials types, and others.
- Learn Out LoudThis audiobook retailer carries a selection of free educational audio and video.
- Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a collection of books and some audiobooks that are in the public domain; they can be read in multiple formats.
- The Open Education ConsortiumFree, open digital publication of high quality educational materials for colleges and universities. These materials are organized as courses, and often include course planning materials and evaluation tools as well as thematic content.
- OpenStaxProvides free online (and low cost to print) professional, peer reviewed textbooks and supporting material that are also customizable.
- Textbook RevolutionA student-run site dedicated to increasing the use of free educational materials by teachers and professors. The approach is to bring all of the free textbooks they can find together in one place, review them, and let the best rise to the top and find their way into the hands of students in classrooms around the world.
Find University-Level Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
- EdXExX is a non-profit organization started by Harvard University and MIT in 2012. Other universities have since joined, including Delft University of Technology and UC Berkeley. The aim of EdX is to provide MOOCs for people all over the world.
- CourseraCoursera is one of the first and best-known providers of MOOCs. All courses are freely accessible, but the course material may not be freely reused by third parties.
- MIT OpenCourseWareFree, open, online courses offered virtually through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the first universities to provide open courseware.
- Open Yale CoursesFree, open, online courses offered through Yale University covering a wide range of disciplines.
- Khan AcademyKhan Academy is a non-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.
- Open Education DatabaseThis database connects you to thousands of MOOCs from many different colleges. It works like a search engine that will provide a list of classes within a particular subject from a variety of different institutions.
- P2PU (Peer 2 Peer University)P2PU courses try and bring together learners who work as peers in community and meet in person with other learners in their neighborhood.
License
The resources used in this guide are released under Creative Commons Licenses.
This guide was adapted by Sarah Guy from the UNCG Guide "Open Educational Resources" by Beth Bernhardt.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.