Open Educational Resources (OER)
Key to the project was the concept of an ‘Open Educational Resource’ - or OER. An OER is material which is ‘freely available online through open licenses such as Creative Commons'.1 Further information on OER can be found on the JISC website .
OER can be anything from a pdf document or powerpoint presentation to a video or image. OER should be able to be ‘used, re-used and repurposed for teaching, learning, research and more’.1 Some websites host search engines for OER and archive many OER resources. OER may also reside within the public domain as ‘open data’.2
With OER a licencing system, such as Creative Commons, is used to release a copyrighted work for more open use without the need for addtional permission.2
For this project we collected veterinary specific OER as well as relevant generic OER (such as those explaining financial concepts) to assist the transition from veterinary school into practice.
We searched with our partner organisations for OER or for finished work which could be released as OER. In addition we explored the internet for OER which could be used to meet the concerns voiced by current graduates. We also received OER from other organisations.
Examples of OER
| RVC eMedia showcase licensed by The Royal Veterinary College under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 UK: England & Wales License. | |
| Vimeo video licensed by Medev Plus under a Creative Commons attribution share alike licence |
References
1. Higher Education Academy Open Educational Resources (OER). [Higher Education Academy] [online] Available from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/oer [Accessed 17 August 2012]
2. Levey, Lisbeth. Finding relevant OER in higher education: a personal account. [book auth.] J et al. Glennie. Open Educational Resources and change in higher education: reflections from practice. Vancouver : Commonwealth of Learning, 2012.