Open Educational Resources: What Are They?
“Open Educational Resources are educational materials and resources offered freely and openly for anyone and available under a license that allows users to use, remix, improve and redistribute.”
– NUI Galway LibGuides, Open Educational Resources
Image: Pixabay, manfredsteger
Online learning, including online language learning, is often based on Open Educational Resources or OERs. Understanding what OERs are and the mechanisms that stand behind them will enable you to become a more efficient online learner.
OERs are designed to engage you in interactive and collaborative tasks that stimulate your knowledge-building, learning, self-reflection and assessment, but they also help you to become an active participant in a unified community of learners. As an online user of OERs, you should therefore activate and develop your digital skills so that you will be able to gain maximum benefit from these resources. In Lesson 2 we will focus on how you can enhance your digital skills and why they are so important in the whole online learning process.
For a brief but exhaustive introduction to OERs, check out the NUI Galway Library Guides, OER – The Very Basics, which provide a useful insight into Open Educational Resources.
NUI Galway language students have adapted and created several OERs. Have a look at the results of their work.