Open education

# 3.1 Week 3 Introduction

The overriding goal of OER is reuse – if no one reuses a resource then it may as well be closed. The materials presented in this week are largely drawn from Week 9 of the Open University H817 course Openness and innovation in elearning.

## What to expect this week

Welcome to Week 3 of the open course on open education.

Having looked at OERs last week, this week you will be addressing some related issues. The first is around the nature of reuse. It is reuse that really defines OERs, that is the whole point of them, to be taken and reused by others.

There is often confusion around whether online resources, such as a YouTube video, can be reused, and this is where licences are important, so this week you will consider Creative Commons Licences.

You will also look at the issue of sustainability and OERs; that is, are they viable in the long term as an approach for universities?

And lastly you will look at what we mean by an open educational resource. Is it just material released through universities? Or is it any resource created that can be used in education?

Building on Week 2, by the end of this week you should have a clear understanding of OERs and reuse.

OpenLearn - Open education
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