According to the three researchers, Dominic Orr, Michele Rimini and Dirk Van Damme, the Open Educational Resources (OER) are defined as being at the same time teaching, learning and searching for appropriate materials and tools (“open licensing, to permit their free reuse, continuous improvement and repurposing by others for educational purposes”). (Orr, Rimini, Van Damme 2015: 17) We might understand that the OER are a cumulation of online texts, images, videos, applications, platforms and games which have an educative purpose and which are free of charge.
These researchers claim that OER focus on the possibility of taking an original work of some provider and being able to adapt and repurpose it to new relevant resources. So, the open means in the OER means that the teacher is free to access, to change or to post new contents. (Orr, Rimini, Van Damme 2015: 17)
In the paper “Open Educational Resources: Analysis of Responses to the OECD Country Questionnaire” Jan Hylén defines the OER as follows: “Open Educational Resources are digital learning resources offered online (although sometimes in print) freely and openly to teachers, educators, students, and independent learners in order to be used, shared, combined, adapted, and expanded in teaching, learning and research. They include learning content, software tools to develop, use and distribute, and implementation resources such as open licenses. The learning content is educational material of a wide variety, from full courses to smaller units such as diagrams or test questions. It may include text, images, audio, video, simulations, games, portals, and the like.” (Hylén 2012: 18)
As we can see in the definition given above, it is very important to keep in mind that the Open Educational Resources are mostly used online and they should be free and accessible for the teachers, but they can also be accessible to students and independent learners. Of course, the resources need to be adapted to the level of the class/student and they have to be placed somewhere in the educational process, to be relevant for a specific type of activity, for achieving the objectives.
If we take a look on the UNESCO’s website, we see the following definition of OER: “Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. OER form part of ‘Open Solutions’, alongside Free and Open Source software (FOSS), Open Access (OA), Open Data (OD) and crowdsourcing platforms.” (Open Educational Resources (OER) (unesco.org)) We can see that it is always brought into attention that these OER are used for the teaching-learning process, be it digital or not, and that they allow free access, use and share of them, as long as they were released under an open license.
The advantages of using OER
According to Jan Hylén, these resources are open and flexible when it comes to provide learning opportunities. They facilitate both formal and informal learning, which can take place on an unlimited period of time. Of course, it is easier to access the high-quality materials that should help both the teacher and the student in the educational process. Furthermore, any individual can promote broader participation in education if he/she accesses and share different platforms or sources where to find OER. (Hylén 2012: 19)
Another important advantage is the fact that the Open Educational Resources are not restricted to online education (e-learning or distance education), since they can be used in a classroom as well, with the help maybe of printers, sheets, projector, audios, laptops, connection to the Internet and so on. Finding a place for the OER in the more traditional environment should enrich the learning experience. (Hylén 2012: 19)
Jan Hylén also states that “OER also has a strong social purpose since they can bring learning opportunities to hitherto disadvantaged and excluded groups of learners while they also help to mitigate the isolation of the diaspora of scholars”. (Hylén 2012: 19) As the author says, these OER can help the students to feel safer, to feel included and to feel that they are integrated into the educational process. The Open Educational Resources help the teachers to provide the students adapted materials to their level and interests.
Due to the Open Educational Resources, there is an increased efficiency and quality of learning resources. People from all over the world (teachers, educators, researchers, students) can upload different materials, courses or programs which may be of help to others. It is also important the fact that, through technology, even the costs are reduced, because there may not be the case to duplicate papers. (Hylén 2012: 19)
The OER can be continuously adapted, revised, updated and transformed. The users have become active participants in the educative process by constructing what is learned. Even the relationship between teachers and student may develop since both parts contribute to the process of teaching and learning. The entire activity is interactive so the boundaries between the parts are at least blurred. (Hylén 2012: 20) It is also possible that the students who prepare to become teachers help this field by adding original resources as a part of their training.
Jan Hylén argues that using, producing and sharing Open Educational Resources constitute a great benefit for individual learners, teachers and the global community. She sees this activity as a “systemic transformation in itself since it affects all parts of the educational system”. (Hylén 2012: 20) The researcher sees the advantages for all the people that use the OER, such as individual learners who gain open and flexible learning opportunities, teachers that may increase their professional recognition, quality and efficiency in the creation of new materials, educational institutions that can attract new students, countries that may increase their support for OER in regular education and the global community, because the OER offer the chance to share knowledge and expertise on global issues. (Hylén 2012: 20)
There are, as we have already seen, a lot of advantages when using Open Educational Resources. We would like to present next a list of advantages that was created by the University of Maryland and that can be found on their webpage (umd.edu/), taking into consideration the fact that was stated above, specifically that the universities or schools can take advantage of these OER and attract more and more students.
The institution claims that through OER there is an expanded access to learning, since students all over the world can access resources at any time. Furthermore, they bring into attention the scalability of the OER, since they can be easily distributed at mostly no cost. The adjustment of the class materials to better align with the learning outcomes or the augmentation of class materials are, again, advantages. It is also more interesting to bring a text which is accompanied by images or videos that help the students to learn easily. Of course, since everyone can upload, modify and distribute this kind of resources, it is obvious the fact that the students can directly interact with them, through creating new ones or improving the existing already existing ones. The students can also be in touch with the institution they are part of through these resources and can continue with a lifelong program of learning. (libguides.umgc.edu/c.php?g=23404&p=138771#:~:text=Advantages%20of%20using%20OERs%20include:%20expanded%20access%20to,time,%20and%20they%20can%20access%20the%20material%20repeatedly.) Consequently, Open Educational Resources (OER) constitute a data base of mainly free resources which allow teachers to innovate their teaching process. They are mostly used online, but they can be downloaded and printed, as well. Teachers can adapt the materials to the specific of each class or student and to specific set of objectives.