Defining open educational resources

The term "open educational resources" was first adopted at UNESCO's 2002 Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Open educational resources are educational materials and resources offered freely and openly for anyone to use and under some licenses to re-mix, improve and redistribute. Open educational resources include:

• Learning content: full courses, course materials, content modules, learning objects, collections, and journals.
• Tools: Software to support the creation, delivery, use and improvement of open learning content including searching and organization of content, content and learning management systems, content development tools, and on-line learning communities.
• Implementation resources: Intellectual property licenses to promote open publishing of materials, design-principles, and localization of content.

Key resources for understanding the global OER movement

►InfoDev Briefing sheet: Quick guide: Open educational resources
►Open Educational Resources - Opportunities and Challenges for HE (pdf)
►OECD OER Handbook
►A Review of the OER Movement: Achievements, Challenges and New Opportunities