Welcome to Day 4 of the Open Access Week Challenge!
Today's activity will focus on Open Education Resources (OER).
In this part of the Open Access Week Challenge, you should expect to learn the following:
Open Educational Resources (also known as OER) are freely accessible online teaching and learning materials. These resources are in the public domain or have been shared with a license that allows them to be used freely and revised by others. OERs can manifest in various formats: videos, textbooks, quizzes, learning modules and more. Increasing the usage of OERs is vital in increasing educational equity as our institution seeks to educate tomorrow's scholars.
As we continue with the 2024 theme "Community over Commercialization", there remains a need to prioritize community-driven approaches over profit-driven models, especially in how we share and access knowledge. By choosing OER, you can contribute to a shift toward community-governed infrastructures that serve the public good.
OER vs. Affordable Course Materials
Affordable Course materials operate similar to OERs as they are content that are more finacially accessible to students. However, unlike, OERs, affordable course materials are not always free or open. Affordable refers to the ways in which the content can be available at a "reduced" costs (i.e affordable eTexts or library licensed materials).
Why Open Education Resources Matter | 2:09 min
Students can access OERs for zero cost and retain permanent access to learning materials
Faculty can have flexibility to customize and adapt materials to meet their specific course needs
Authors can disseminate their work to a global audience while still receiving attribution
For Day 4 of the Open Access Week Challenges, complete the following tasks:
