Introduction

1. Open Educational Resources Megan Kraemer Introduction Open Educational Resources (OER) is a phrase coined to refer to the availability of free educational information on the internet. The overall idea was to provide educational materials, concepts and supports to a global community of learners. These educational courses are intended to expand and support knowledge. This idea of knowledge to a world of learners found support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundations along with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. These foundation groups supported Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT) in being the first higher education institution to contribute its course materials freely to all in the spring of 2001. Open Educational Resources was originally referred to as Open Course Ware (OCW). Since the initial donations of MIT, there are now over sixty educational institutions making their contributions to the OER efforts Over the past ten years, the OER concept has grown into a huge global effort to supply free educational materials for everyone’s benefit. In the process of building this storehouse of knowledge, the non-profit organization of Creative Commons (CC) was established in Massachusetts. This organization developed a system of making these educational materials legally available while allowing the authors to retain credit of publication. Open Educational Resources are divided into the following three categories: 1) Learning content which refers to items such as full courses, course materials, learning objectives, content modules, etc. 2) Tools which refers to the use of software that is needed to support the formation, delivery, use, and enhancement of open learning content. Implementation resources which refers to intellectual property licenses to encourage open publishing of materials. One of the primary goals of OER is to provide cost-free access to the educational materials and make it available as extensively as possible. Not only should the information be freely available to the learner, but also the tools necessary to access the information need to be at a reasonable cost. Because this is an offering of knowledge to countries from around the world, the intent is to include areas that may not have the same plentiful resources that are available to more prosperous nations. Another focus of OER is to make this knowledge accessible to as many individuals as possible. Individuals should be able to access the information without issues of registration, passwords or eligibility definitions. In addition, this knowledge needs to be an accessible resource to individuals with disabilities; especially if those disabilities may prohibit their participation in gaining an education through traditional methods and means. Also it is important to mention that the OER movement is ever-changing and striving to find new ways to serve as many individuals as possible to the best of its ability. That is why the OER is currently undergoing a transformation toward becoming an independent program within the Educational Program. To reveal the possibilities of OER, pilot projects are being designed that can be modified to meet other cultural needs such as language translation. In 2008 there were three specific areas targeted to demonstrate the OER’s ability to change both teaching and learning. This project was funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The three targeted areas include the Game Based Learning, Open Text Books and Research and Development of Open Participatory Learning Environments. It is their intention to add a fourth goal in 2009 of Teacher Training. Results and Graphs Survey Do you use the internet to assist in writing your lesson plans? How many times have you heard of Open Educational Resources? (OER’s) What percentage of your weekly lesson plans come from internet sources? What types of materials do you most often search for online? If you use the internet to assist in writing your lessons plans, which site is your favorite? What about this site is beneficial for you? What types of obstacles have you encountered when searching for OER’s? I have posted one or more of my lesson plans to the internet? I have utilized the internet to take an online course in my own learning. I feel that OER’s should be used for teacher training. Conclusion Open Educational Resources began as a vision over a decade ago has grown into a world-wide opportunity for millions of people. The very people who might not have had the access or even the hope of gaining a formal education, contributing to their own lives, and benefiting their communities have now been brought into a far wider world of understanding. References • http://www.hewlett.org/Programs/Education/OER/openEdResources.htm http://cnx.org/content/m14466/latest/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resourceshttp://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/OpenEducationalResourcesS/39931?time=1234117378