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Wiley, Bliss, and McEwen, “Open Educational Resources: OER Literature Review”

Read the article at https://edtechbooks.org/-vhdu

Background

The authors provide a thorough review of the existing literature on open educational resources in 2012. This “State of OER review” reports on a variety of OER definitions over the past fifteen years, reviews production models of OER and touts its benefits. Perhaps the most historically significant section is the Challenges of OER, where the authors unpack five sweeping issues: discovery, sustainability, quality, localization, and remix. The article concludes that these obstacles must be overcome if OER is going to fulfill its potential.

Key Points

The definition of open is well-traveled for a term still in its initiatory stages.

  1. Wiley (2010) – Open is a matter of cost and copyright – 4 (now 5) Rs.
  2. Wenk (2010) – Open means the freedom to use, study, redistribute and change.
  3. Patrical, del Rocio & Elizabeth (2010) – Open means having the term “open license” in the definition.
  4. Tuomi (2006) – Open means having levels of openness in the definition.
  5. In practice open refers to things under the Creative Commons license

OER Research indicates that there are multiple models of sharing and producing OER, in addition to multiple benefits and almost as many challenges to the implement of OER.

The future of OER looks promising as more nations are joining the OER effort. There are also some gaps that need to be filled in open assessment, a wide open frontier that needs to be explored.

Discussion Questions

  1. Should open assessment be in its own repository or in a package with resources? Why?
  2. What is the best way to remove barriers to OER?
  3. What are three things you can do today to inspire someone to use OER?

Additional Resources

OER Commons https://www.oercommons.org/

Connexions http://cnx.org/

This content is provided to you freely by EdTech Books.

Access it online or download it at https://openedreader.org/openedreader/open-educational-resources-oer-literature-review.