UnisaOpen OER

This subject guide serves as a point of departure in finding information on Open Educational Resources (OERs) as well as providing further avenues for self-exploration. It is a work in progress as the contents will change as new resources are added or removed. You are encouraged to make suggestions for content to be added or removed.

As the world has come to recognize the importance of open education initiatives, there have been numerous discussions on their impacts on our learning. However, researchers and educators seldom examine factors that influence the growth of each initiative. This study tries to address the importance of recognizing factors affecting the success of open education initiatives by analyzing established initiatives around the world. Through the analysis, it found six factors across three categories: organizational factors (brand/reputation, and funding), pedagogical factors (focus of subjects, and interactivity), and social factors (social view of open education, and localization).

This report shares the findings and lessons learned from an investigation into the economics of dis aggregated models for assessing and accrediting informal learners undertaking post secondary education. It presents some key economic and governance challenges for universities to consider in implementing OER assessment and accreditation policies.

"ABSTRACT   This paper presents results from research on the use of OCW and OER in Higher Education (HE). The research was carried out with leaders of OCW/OER initiatives at HE Institutions and Organizations around the world. The aim was to identify successful practices for implementation and use of OCW/OER in HE and to investigate how OCW/OER could facilitate student virtual mobility. This work has been planned as part of the project "OpenCourseWare (OCW) in the European HE context" carried out with the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union. The focus of the project is the creation of preconditions for a strong European/OCW framework and, as a consequence, a decline of obstacles to cooperation between European institutes, and therefore an increase in real student mobility."

"This paper describes an open educational resources (OER) architecture framework that would bring significant improvements in a well-structured and systematic way to the educational practices of distance education institutions of India. The OER architecture framework is articulated with six dimensions: pedagogical, technological, managerial, academic, financial, and ethical. These dimensions are structured with the component areas of relevance: IT infrastructure services, management support systems, open content development and maintenance, online teaching-learning, and learner assessment and evaluation of the OER architecture framework. An OER knowledge and information base, including a web portal, is proposed in the form of a series of knowledge repositories. This system would not only streamline the delivery of distance education but also would enhance the quality of distance learning through the development of high quality e-content, instructional processes, course/programme content development, IT infrastructure, and network systems. Thus the proposed OER architecture framework when implemented in the distance education system (DES) of India would improve the quality of distance education and also increase its accessibility in a well-organised and structured way."