Open Educational Resources
Higher education institutions all over the world are increasingly making their educational resources openly available and are investing heavily in developing Open Educational Resources. That development fits in with a global “openness movement”. Open Educational Resources belong to a digital “openness family”, which also includes Open Source and Open Access.
Open Educational Resources
Open Educational Resources are resources that are made available online for use or reuse. Institutions have a wide range of educational resources at their disposal and these are often made available to an internal group of students within a closed learning environment. In order for the materials to be shared with the rest of the world, they need to be made openly available under an open licence, for example Creative Commons. A licence of this kind makes the reuse, revising, remixing and redistributing of materials possible.
There are no restrictions on the type of educational resources concerned. They can be presentations, videos of lectures, e books, or complete open courses. A distinction can be made, however, between the individual learning objects and the resources that are assembled using them.
Showing the world what they have to offer
Open Educational Resources are bringing about changes in higher education. Providing such resources openly enables higher education institutions to show the rest of the world what they have to offer, and thus to attract talented students and researchers. Institutions that make their educational resources openly available have noticed another positive effect, namely an improvement in the resources themselves. Because Open Educational Resources are freely available for use, instructors can make use of large quantities of resources, which assist them in their teaching.
Open Educational Resources Programme
In SURF’s Strategic Plan for 2011-2014, the Dutch higher education institutions have made the theme of “open” a priority, in both education and research. In april 2011, SURF consequently launched the Open Educational Resources Programme in close collaboration with the Dutch higher education institutions.
Collaborating within the Open Educational Resources Programme nation-wide will allow Dutch higher education institutions to shape and develop their policy. Because the institutions are working together and drawing on one another’s expertise, the Netherlands can catch up in the field of Open Educational Resources, keep up with international developments, and showcase itself more effectively as a “gateway to knowledge” offering high-quality education.
Information (in English)
• Download the Open Educational Resources Programme (May 2011, PDF)
• Download the Progress Report on Open Educational Resources Programme: looking back at 2011 and forward to 2012 (January 2012, PDF)
• Trend Report Open Educational Resources 2012 (March 2012, article in Dutch, the link to the English Trend Report can be found below the article)
• Summary of the Dutch Open Education Week activities (March 2012)
• Article on Open Educational Resources: Access to high-quality education for all (October 2011, PDF)
Links (in Dutch)
• Open Educational Resources on SURFspace
• Special Interest Group Open Educational Resources
• Open Educational Resources on LinkedIn
• Open Educational Resources Blog
More information
For more information about the Open Educational Resources Programme, please contact the project manager Hester Jelgerhuis, T +31 (0)30 234 6667.