What are open educational resources (OERs) and how can you utilize them?
Post-secondary students need to break down many barriers. Alongside classes and busy schedules, students need to afford textbooks and other needed tools during the school year.
But what if we had access to free educational resources? Have you ever heard about Open Educational Resources (OERs)?
Their purpose is to help alleviate some of the financial burdens students face related to the high cost of textbooks. We talked with Humber Polytechnic and University of Guelph-Humber’s Library Director, Alexandra Ross, to learn more about how students can benefit from OERs.
What are OERs?
In simple words, OERs are educational materials that are openly licensed and freely available to students to use at no cost.
Alexandra said students often think of OERs just as textbooks, but they also include journals, music, videos, interactive content and even podcasts. Since OERs are openly published, they can be found in many online sources.
The library recommends students to start a search in the eCampus Ontario’s Open Library.
“From this source, you can search by keyword or browse by type, subject, etc.,” Ross wrote. “Once you see an item of interest, the landing page for the object provides a variety of options to view and download it.”
eCampus Ontario can ultimately provide students with more resources about their area of studies.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say you want to improve your workplace writing skills. The Business Writing for Everyone is a great OER. And in this case, instead of buying a textbook, you could learn about the topic for free!
How to use OERs
Copyright issues have increased with the growth of the internet and social media. If you’re a student working with audio, video and image content, for example, OERs might be just what you need so you don’t make a mistake.
Alexandra said OER content provides greater clarity on what you can and can’t do with the available resources.
She said OERs also allow faculty to combine and modify materials from a wide range of sources, allowing instructors to better align content with course learning outcomes, student interests and the diverse social and cultural backgrounds of students at Humber and UofGH.
The librarian also noted that one benefit of OERs is that they are updated on an ongoing basis.
“For example, it is likely that an OER resource about AI that appears to be being updated on a regular basis will provide more current information than a commercial textbook published a year ago,” Ross wrote.
Accessibility challenges with OERs
We asked Alexandra how OERs could be beneficial for students with disabilities or different learning needs.
On the one hand, OERs are mostly digitally published, which allows authors to add a wide range of accessibility tools to their materials.
However, there is a challenge. Alexandra said that although commercial publishers have a standard for accessibility, OERs can vary in the attention to detail that is given to features like alt text, for example.
“Proper alt text is a vital feature for individuals with perceptual challenges who require the use of a screen reader,” Ross noted.
Learning for life
So, what’s the takeaway? Should you skip buying textbooks altogether? Not really. OERs are an alternative way for you to build your knowledge, explore a wider range of materials and make sure you’re staying within the rules of what can and can’t be done with openly licensed content.
And unlike regular textbooks, OERs help alleviate the financial burden students already face.
If you still have questions about OERs, you can email [email protected].
Feature image courtesy of felirbe via Unsplash.
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