NMDELT OER Fact Sheet
The NMDELT OER Fact Sheet:
“OERs in Adult Education; The Future of Adult Education”.
Credit OTAN (Outreach and Technological Assistance Network), October, 2014))
Definition:
What are OER? OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits sharing, accessing, repurposing—including for commercial purposes—and collaborating with others. Five foundational principles (the 5Rs) are part of all OER.
The Five Rs:
1. Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content
2. Reuse – the right to reuse the content as verbatim or in its unaltered form
3. Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself
4. Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other content to create something new
5. Redistribute – the right to make and share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others
Relevance to Adult Education:
Open Educational Resources (OER) have been used for many years, but only in the last few years has the idea caught on. The idea that resources should not be controlled by a publisher or an institution. Rather OER offer open access to educational resources to anyone, anywhere, any time. This is the future of adult education. A system that allows students to study when, where and how ever they can.
The relevance of OER to adult education is indisputable. With the dramatic change in high school equivalency exams starting in 2014 and the focus now on career pathways as well as English proficiency expectation equal to native speakers, (no longer English as a second language -ESL-, but simply English language learner –ELL) something had to change to make it all work.
Enter individualized instruction with an individual learning plan for each student. How do buy, store, keep on hand, and supply to students all the materials necessary to teach a variety of topics at the same time? OER.
What is the value of OER in adult education (AE)? Quality OER can be powerful tools to enhance learning and instruction in adult education. OER help students achieve their learning goals by providing flexible and accessible supplements to instruction. OER encourage life-long learning habits in students by providing them with personalized and readily available learning materials. OER also help educators by augmenting instruction, strengthening their content knowledge, and providing access to free online professional development.
What is the difference between free and open? Free resources serve a meaningful purpose in AE by providing teachers with tools to support teaching and learning. "Free" means that materials are free to access but not remix or revise. However, when a resource is open, a user can remix or revise with other open resources or self-generated content to produce new material that directly targets the adult learner’s needs.
The 5Rs* * This material is based on original writing by David Wiley, which was published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution license at: http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3221 Another way to think about OER is through the Five R Framework, developed by David Wiley. It supports a deeper understanding of what it means to consider an object (i.e., resource) an OER. What are the benefits of using and creating OER for adult education? Creating and using OER may improve student persistence because the materials can be tailored to their current needs and interests; increase student use of online tools; encourage educators to collaborate share; save costs; and serve as a model for lifelong learning.
Where Can I Create and Remix OER?
-OER Commons Open Author www.oercommons.org/open-author-about
-Gooru Learning http://about.goorulearning.org
- WikiEducator wikieducator.org/
-Open Tapestry www.opentapestry.com/
- YouTube Video Editor www.youtube.com/editor
- TedEd http://ed.ted.com
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