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Creating open educational resources
Creating open educational resources

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2 What makes a good OER?

What is an open educational resource?

The term ‘open educational resource’ is one that encompasses a broad range of items. It can describe a single image or an entire short course, and materials can be in any medium or a mixture. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has defined OERs as ‘digitised materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and re-use for teaching, learning and research’.

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What’s so special about OER?

It is a simple idea – that you license content in a manner that explicitly encourages use and adaptation – but it has proved a very powerful one. Watch the following video for an elaboration of what’s so special about OER.

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Characteristics of a good OER

A good OER is:

  • findable – it can be in multiple locations
  • clearly described
  • clearly licensed (normally through Creative Commons)
  • from a source you trust
  • easy to modify
  • free-standing – it does not assume knowledge of other resources
  • free of copyright content
  • being used by/recommended by people like you
  • imperfect – it just needs to work for you.