Open education is a global movement that has existed for a number of years and is continuing to grow. The concept is that education institutions such as schools, colleges and universities are placing their learning materials to share via the internet, so opening up the doors to education. There is a tension between education being a commercial enterprise and the idea of organizations now releasing their teaching resources entirely for free. These teaching resources are often called "open educational resources".
What are open educational resources?
Open educational resources, abbreviated to OER, come in all shapes and sizes. An OER might simply be a photograph, or it might be a video of a teaching session or lecture, or the lecture notes. Alternatively there are some that come in the form of entire teaching units or modules including all the content and assessment. What makes the resource "open" is the fact it is released with an open copyright license attached to it, for example the Creative Commons license.
This means anyone can use the learning resources as long as they comply with the license terms, which might just simply mean cite or attribute the original author when using it. These licenses are the driving force behind the concept of open education.
How have open educational resources helped me?
As a teacher suddenly I have available to me a wealth of learning material which I can use in the class room. It might be a nice photograph to illustrate a point, or it might be a set of quiz questions. The OER's are like building blocks or bricks from which I can build my teaching. The major advantage is that it saves me time, and it just makes more sense for those teaching around the world to share rather than keep creating or own materials that would be identical to someone else's at the next school or college.
Some of my colleagues say that open education is a threat and might someday replace teachers altogether! But I say the OER's can't replace discussions in the classroom or the feedback I give to my students to develop their knowledge. So I am far from being out of a job. By placing my own teaching materials on the internet I have made contact with other teachers, and I get emails from all over the world, so open education is not just opening up opportunities for students, but it also opens up opportunities for teachers.
How OER's can help you!
You might be a learner, a teacher, or just someone interest and curious about a subject. Whoever you are, search for "open educational resource" on the internet and see what you find! You will probably come across the Massachusetts Institute of Technology OpenCourseware initiative which contains all their lecture notes, videos and exams. You obviously will find educational materials on YouTube that you wish to use in your teaching, but you need to be careful. You need to check that the video is openly licensed, and you need to be absolutely sure that the individual putting the video on YouTube actually owned the content.
Whether you are a teacher, a student or member of the public curious about any subject, look for open educational resources [http://www.biologycourses.co.uk/open-education-about-us] and join the global phenomenon known as open education. If you are interested in biology courses such as biomedical science, medical science, forensic science and many more visit [http://www.biologycourses.co.uk].
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