3 Open Educational Resources (OER)

Brief Synopsis

Hello Friends. In our last discussion we came to know about the concept of MOOC, and the perception of the learners regarding the agMOOCs as well as the issues associated with that. In this discussion we will be talking of Open Educational Resources, which understanding of Open Educational Resource is very important for resource person, a faculty member, a researcher, a student etc etc. because we need to know about development of the resources as well as making use of these resources. So that’s what is the content that we will be discussing now.

History of OER

If you look into the history of open educational resources.

• So it begins with the MIT open course project, on “global open education resource movement”- 2001.
• So the term was adopted by UNESCO in 2002, that OER(Open Educational Resource) this term was adopted in 2002 on a forum on the “Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries”
• So the open educational resources movement comprised of.

1. 1. 1. 1. Open Courseware (OCW)
         2. Open Publishers
         3. And Open educational resources Repositories
         4. And publicly funded initiatives

So now we will be looking into them one by one.

Definition

So coming to the definition of Open Courseware. It is an educational content created by institutions and published for free access by the target communities via internet under intellectual property licenses. So there are two important issues that we need to identify

Number one the educational content is open and free access for the entire population and there is the concept of intellectual property license. If you want to take the advantage of this, you can go through it, you can understand that. But when you want to reuse it or when you want to reproduce it. So the IP issues are coming into the picture.

Principles

Then the principles of this open educational resources include.

• Reuse: the first one is the reuse. The people are allowed to use all or part of the work for their own purpose. You can download it, you can save it, and you can reuse at any point of time, because you are free to do that. So that’s what is the openness means.
• Redistribute: then redistribute. You can share the downloaded contents with your peer group, with your students, or with your co-learners etc, so that they are also getting the benefits of these things.
• Revise: then you can revise it. People can adopt, modify, translate or change the work. For example a book written in English can be translated into Hindi audiobook, or like that we can think of. So that’s what is the meaning of revision.
• Remix: then you can go for remixing of that. People can take two or more existing resources and combine them to create a new resource. So the already existing material can be combined and a new thing can be created.
• Retain: and then next principle is retain. No digital rights management restrictions. The content is yours to keep, whether you are the author, or you are the instructor using the material or  student. So you can easily retain the contents that you have downloaded or that you have obtained from any of the open educational resources.

Different Formats of OER

Then coming to the different formats of open educational resources.

• We have online textbooks
• We have YouTube clips. So number of YouTube clips that you are already enjoying.
• Then animations and simulations
• There are a number of MOOCs that are available
• Video recorded lectures are available on different platforms. As we have said, agMOOCs is one such platform, Swayam is there, e-PG Pathashala. Number of such video lectures that are available. NPTEL courses are there.
• Then web based textual materials available on different formats.
• Then the digital diagrams as well as graphics are also available.

Classification of OER

Based on Type:

So they are available in different formats like maybe

1. 1. 1. 1. Text/print
         2. visual/photograph
         3. audio
         4. video/audio-visual
         5. animation

Based on Licensing:

So the licensing includes. There are certain issues

1. 1. 1. 1. copyright protected. That I will be showing at the end of this discussion. What is meaning of this copyright protection?
         2. Then there are Creative Commons
         3. And there are some public domain issues.

So all these things that we will be showing at the end of this discussion.

Advantages

The advantages of open educational resources include:

• There is an expanded access to the learning, specially for the learner.
• So scalability is another thing, because you can enhance the efficiency under these systems.
• Then augmentation of class materials. So already existing material that you can take, and you can add to it, modify it. So that becomes an opportunity for the learner.
• Enhancement of the regular course content. So whatever the existing content. You modify it according to the things and you can update the data. So that becomes part of your course content.
• Then quick circulation using the information-communication technologies.
• Then less expense for the students because the cost of development has already been incurred by certain agencies
• Then continually improved resources over a period of time, just you can keep on adding while use of that.

Limitations

The limitations of this OER include.

• The quality issues. Who will be assessing the quality of the contents that are available in open educational resources is an issue, is a limitation.
• Lack of human interaction between teachers and students. So if the student starts depending more and more on this electronic resources or the open educational resources. His interaction with his own teacher is going to be reduced over a period of time. So that is another concern
• Language barrier. Then language is one other barrier, because majority of the content is available only in the English language. The contents in regional languages are very less.
• Technological issues : then the technological issues. Maybe you are becoming addicted to the technology. You are using or misusing technology for various purposes.
• Intellectual property/copyright concerns. Then intellectual property rights or the copyrights are another concern. Because people start using the same content in their own name. Or just the issues related to plagiarism are coming into the picture.
• Sustainability issues. Then the sustainability issues over a longer period of time. How long it is going to be sustained, the concept of openness

Organizations in OER

The organizations who are involved in this open educational resources. There is a huge list of organizations specially in Indian context as well as at the global level.

So Campus of Open Learning which is situated at New Delhi.

• It was established to introduce job oriented courses to the youth while pursuing their studies.
• A type of distance education as well as the vocational education courses.

Then Commonwealth Open Schooling Association (COMOSA) in the State of Uttar Pradesh

• Basically it is a non-profit organization, committed to support the efforts of open schooling institutions, the school dropouts or providing platform to those who are the disadvantaged sections of the society.
• The programs of school education for sustainable development in commonwealth countries, through open distance learning mode is an objective of COMOSA.

Then coming to NCERT which is the national level institution under the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

• So the basic objective was to undertake, promote and coordinate research in areas related to school education; so prepare and publish model textbooks, supplementary material, newsletters, journal and develop educational kits, multimedia digital materials and keep it open for the use of the students. Specially the school educational material are available on the NCERT websites.

Then the Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET) which is situated in New Delhi. It is basically a premier national institute of educational technology, to promote utilization of educational technologies like maybe radio, tv, films, satellite communication and the cyber-media. So how we can develop different formats and how we can enhance the qualities, the issue that is being dealt with by CIET, New Delhi.

Connected Learning Initiative (CLIX)

• is another technology enabled initiative at the scale of high school students. So they are catering to the needs of the high school students.

Then Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) which is an initiative of MHRD.

• So connecting libraries as well as the information centers, through a nationwide high speed data network. So all the e-PG Pathashala contents are available through this INFLIBNET network only.

Then the State of Karnataka has taken an initiative of launching an initiative like Pratham Books.

• So non-profit children’s book publishing house. It uses CC licenses (Creative Commons licenses) to further distribution, translation and reuse this particular work at the State level.

Then National Institute of Open Schooling, which was established in 1989.

• Basically providing an opportunity to the school dropouts and the disadvantaged sections of the society by developing the courses of study through open and distance learning (ODL) mode. And largest Open Schooling System in the world, that we can say.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) which was established in 1985.

• It is offering high quality teaching through the Open and Distance Learning mode.
• So there is the School of Agriculture (SOA), which was established in 2005 at IGNOU. It also strives to develop agricultural entrepreneurs and agri business managers with the help of using these open educational resources.

OER Services

Some of the services of OER include.

e-PG Pathashala

• I have already said, it covers more than 70 subjects, belonging to the social sciences, arts, fine arts, humanities, natural sciences, mathematical sciences, linguistics as well as languages.

National Repository of Open Educational Resources (NROER) again at the national level which is acting as a storehouse for open educational resources.

Then at the State level we have the initiative of the State of Telangana. Telangana Open Educational Resources (TROER).

And Vidya Mitra is another effort by the government.

• An online learning portal for all e-connected projects developed under the National Mission on Education- Information-Communication Technologies (NME-ICT) of Ministry of Human Resources Development.

Audio-Visual OER

The audio-visual open educational resources are being developed by

The NPTEL, we have already discussed about this in the agMOOCs platform also. National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning, which is focusing basically on engineering education.

Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) which is broadcasting huge number of programs for the benefit of the society through the television. So they have exclusive channels like the Gyan Darshan, which is an educational channel through Edusat.

Then Project on Open Source Courseware Animations and Repository, which is popularly known as OSCAR. It is an initiative of IIT, Bombay in collaboration with NME-ICT, which creates a repository of web based interactive animations for teaching various concepts as well as technologies. So their specialization is based on the development of animations and inculcating these animations into educational systems.

e-GyanKosh of IGNOU is another repository. Audio-visual repository that is available which provides access to the outstanding video lectures recorded at the IGNOU studio of Gyan Darshan, and which are for the use of public.

agMOOCs is another effort. So we are all beneficiaries of this. Initially it was launched with NPTEL in collaboration with IIT, Kanpur as well as Commonwealth of Learning. So focusing on developing quality educational content for agricultural education.

Swayam is an initiative of again the Ministry of Human Resource Development. So the full form of Swayam is (Study-webs of active learning for young aspiring minds) program. So they have also come out with a number of MOOCs courses, wherein subjects of science, arts, humanities, law, management etc etc, specially at the graduation level. Number of students are accepting or adopting these courses as a part of their learning efforts.

Textual OER

The textual open educational resources include,

1. 1. 1. 1. The NCERT
         2. E-GyanKosh of IGNOU
         3. Then, National Science Digital Library
         4. Vidyanidhi, it is the effort of University of Mysore.
         5. Krishikosh, it is an initiative of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, under the National Agricultural Innovation Project.

So these are some of the textual open educational resources.

Websites for Open Educational Resources in India

There are certain websites for open educational resources in India. The prominent of them are

1. 1. 1. 1. www.nroer.in National Depository for Open Educational Resources.
         2. Then e-Basta is the government digital initiative.
         3. Then NCERT is another example that we have already discussed.
         4. Then ictcurriculum.gov.in So wherein you can get huge amount of resources.
         5. Then books.google
         6. As well as scholar.google

These are some of the platforms where you get open educational resources.

Licensing Descriptions

Now coming to the most important aspect. When I want to download anything, reuse, or modify or accept the things. So we need to emphasize on the marks that are mentioned on the paper, somewhere on the website or on the paper. So what does this mean. The first one

• If it is written public domain. It means, it is free content available globally without any restrictions. You can use it, you can modify it, you can circulate it. All types of freedom is there.
• So if this mark is attached on a particular paper or a video or whatever it is. It means you need to attribute the authors and the Institution, which has produced that.
• So the next symbol says that, so it needs to be attributed as well as in the similar efforts that you can share it.
• And this particular symbol denotes, the attribution is essential, as well as you can go for noncommercial circulation.
• And this particular symbol says that, you can attribute. It should be non-commercial and you can share it.
• And this particular symbol says that, attribution but you should not modify it. There are no derivatives of it.
• And this particular symbol says that you need to attribute or you need to acknowledge it. But it is non-commercial in nature and no derivatives are allowed.

So we need to understand these licensing descriptions, provided by or given by the author. So this is what we were referring to the ‘intellectual property rights’ as well as the copyrights that we need to keep in mind, while using the downloaded material from the web.

Conclusion

To conclude we can say that

• Education is limitless. So the open educational resources are an opportunity, as well as if the care is not taken, that becomes a limitation also.
• Electronic mediation are widening the limits of this education and providing lots of opportunities for the people.
• And it satisfies the knowledge hungry learner. Because of the repositories, the number of sources that are available.
• And the licensing issues make the creator as well as user more responsible. So we need to take extra care while using the things that are created by somebody else, because the Intellectual Property Rights belong to him or her who has developed that. We need to respect that. And at the same time your rights are also being respected by others.

With this we will be coming to end of the discussion on Open Education Resources.

Thank You.