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Global Teacher Network OER Study and Workshop

GLP is a partner in the Global Teacher Network OER Project. The project consists of a short scoping and feasibility study that aims to promote more effective production and exchange of learning resources between repositories and teachers all over the world. The research began in the fall of 2008, and a workshop to gather the findings was held in Brussels in the spring of 2009.

Supported by GLP, nine Zambian teachers participated in the study submitting over 60 resources to be analyzed as part of the study. Topics of the materials and lessons included physics, biology, history and environment. One teacher submitted as a resource a simulation that he has used in his classroom to demonstrate Boyle's Law. "Where experimental apparatus is a challenge, the animation supplements the lesson and is easy to appreciate," says Michael Changa, a teacher in Zambia.

GLP's Alexandra Draxler and two representatives from Zambia, Moses Mwewa and Misheck Mutuzana, attended the workshop in Brussels. Project partners and 13 teachers from seven countries discussed learning resources used in classrooms, identified "travel well" quality criteria for the resources and if/how these could be applied in order to improve OER interoperability and exchange at a global level at the workshop. Mr. Misheck shared his report on the workshop, "There are learning resources that travel well!"

The project is led by European Schoolnet (EUN) and supported with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Conversations in Cyberspace about OER

UNESCO has contributed to building awareness about the OER movement by facilitating an extended conversation in cyberspace. Over a two-year period, a large and diverse international community discussed the concept and potential of OER in a series of online forums. Open Educational Resources: Conversations in Cyberspace, a publication edited by Susan D'Antoni and Catriona Savage, provides an overview of the first steps of this new development by capturing these conversations between leaders of some of the first OER projects, and documents early debates on the issues that continue to challenge the movement.

Develop and Use OER

The OER Handbook for Educators is designed to help educators find, use, develop and share OER to enhance their effectiveness online and in the classroom.

Publish OER

The Educator’s Licensing Portal is an informational website for educators interested in licensing their work (papers, tools, photographs, video, handouts, lectures, or other educational resources) so that it can be shared with others.

Experiences of OpenLearn

OpenLearn Research Report 2006-2008 evaluates the impact OpenLearn has had internally and externally and the challenges that lie ahead in open content and establishing open learning networks. The report takes the experiences of OpenLearn over its two-years of operation to reflect on what it means to offer free resources and brings together several case studies, reports and reflections from the OpenLearn team, delivering several perspeprovision of Open Educational Resources (OER). The Open University’s research into OER is now conducted byR is now conducted by OLnet, an international research hub for aggregating, sharing, debating and improving Open Educational Resources.

Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning

Open Learning's Special Issue on Open Educational Resources presents an overview of the OER movement and provides case studies largely from the perspective of the OER provider. The issue contains articles regarding the context and catalyst for the OER movement, description of OER at MIT and the OpenCourseWare Consortium, case studies from the Open University UK, the Open Universiteit Nederland, National Knowledge Commission in India and Virtual University for Small States of the Commonwealth.