Open Educational Resources: An Overview

Open educational resources are openly licensed documents and media that are freely accessible

by anyone throughout the globe. These resources are very useful for teachers, students and

researchers. Any individual or organization can create their own open educational resources.

Once created, such a resource can be released, reused, remixed and repurposed by anyone. These

resources are shared through the website of education providers or through public services like i-

Tunes U, slideshare, YouTube, Jorum etc. Over 2500 open access courses are freely available

from over 200 universities worldwide and more institutions are involving on a regular basis, as

the principle of openness is spreading quickly.

The main objective of the development of OER is:

To curb the commodification of knowledge

To provide an alternate/enhanced educational paradigm

Free universalization of education

India’s involvement in OER movement is still in its inception stage. Only few institutes from

India have involved in open educational resource movement; these are as follows:

1. The National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) – It is a joint effort of

the seven Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). It

provides lectures on select courses by their specialist faculty. The mode of distribution is

offline CD’s, You Tube lectures and web based courses through the website

www.nptel.iitm.ac.in.

2. The Virtual Academy for Semi-Arid Tropics (VASAT) – It is a wing of the International

Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). It provides learning

resources on agricultural practices. The mode of distribution is power point slides, flash

video and HTML files through the website www.icrisat.org.

3. Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) – It provides free courses to learners

with the use of flexilearn service through the website www.ignouflexilearn.ac.in. The

purpose of flexilearn is to expand the scope of open and distance learning.

OER provides great benefits to teachers and institutes alike. Some of them are as follows:

Benefits to teachers:

It gives an inspiration and ideas for ways of teaching.

Teachers can use a wider pool of resources.

It fills the gaps between the teachers’ expertise and media production skills through

available videos.

It builds the reputation of teachers.

Teachers can get feedback from peers and learners throughout the globe.

Teachers can compare their work with other experts.

It gives an opportunity to teachers to collaborate with other professionals and subject

experts.

Benefits to institutes:

It provides an opportunity to institutes for marketing and reputation building through

showcasing of their work.

It extends the institution’s reach internationally.

It provides an institute the opportunity of international social responsibility by sharing

knowledge.

It provides improved public engagement.

It helps institutes in widening access and participation.

It provides more opportunities to collaborate within and beyond the institution.

It helps in preserving knowledge in disciplines where resources are not widely available.

It gives new opportunities for staff development.

Dr. Sangeeta Malik

Assistant Professor

SCDL, Pune