Resources

Key points

As an OERu course, learners are not required to purchase any prescribed texts. All study materials are available as open educational resources or open access publications and are grouped as follows: Study materials used in this course to guide and support OERu learners Reference Materials which will improve knowledge and enrich the learning experience Open access online journals which contain articles required for various learning activities during the course.

Study materials used in this course

All resources used in this course are OERs or open access materials.

• Course guide: You are reading this. Your course guide introduces you to the course and includes the Study Schedule. It also contains assignment guidelines together with the marking rubrics for each assignment should you wish to complete the assessment requirements for the course.

• StudyDesk – The StudyDesk is the primary website you select for accessing your course materials. The StudyDesk website may be prescribed by the OERu institution you select for assessment services.

The StudyDesk websites contain all of the Units you are to study each week, and the e-learning activities guiding you to select the substantial content of the course using Open Educational Resources online. Please refer to the individual Units and assigned e-learning activities for further information.

All required materials for this course will be provided on the Course Study Desk. You can use the reference resources listed below and use other open access materials you find online to support your learning.

Reference materials

Open educational resources

• D.E. Atkins, J.S. Brown & A.L. Hammond. 2007. A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities. Report to The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
• Butcher, N., and Hoosen, S. 2012. Exploring the Business Case for Open Educational Resources. Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.
• COL, and UNESCO. 2011. Guidelines for Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education. Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.
• Dhanarajan, G., and Porter, D. (Eds.) 2013. Perspectives on Open and Distance Learning: Open Educational Resources: An Asian Perspective Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.
• Glennie, J., Harley, K., Butcher, N. and van Wyk, T. (Eds.) 2012. Perspectives on Open and Distance Learning: Open Educational Resources and Change in Higher Education: Reflections from Practice. Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.
• Gurell, S. 2008. OER Handbook for Educators 1.0, WikiEducator. (Online print version also available from Lulu.com].)
• Hoosen, S. (Neil Butcher & Associates) 2012. Survey on Governments’ Open Educational Resources (OER) Policies. Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.
• Kanwar, A. Uvalić-Trumbić, S., and Butcher, N. 2011. A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources (OER). Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.
• OECD 2007. Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources. Paris: OECD.
• OCLOS 2007. Open Educational Content - Introduction and Tutorials, WikiEducator.
• SURF 2013. Trend Report: Open Educational Resources 2013. Special Interest Group Open Educational Resources, SURF.
• UNESCO. 2012. Paris OER Declaration. Paris: UNESCO.
• Wiley, D. 2007. Open Educational Resources: On the Sustainability of OER initiatives. Paper commissioned by the OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) for the project on Open Educational Resources. Paris: OECD.

Copyright

• Band, J. and Gerafi, J. 2013. The Fair Use/Fair Dealing Handbook. Infojustice.org.
• Fitzgerald, B. 2007. Open Educational Resources, Open Content Licensing (OCL). Paper commissioned by the OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) for the project on Open Educational Resources. Paris: UNESCO.
• Hofman, J. 2009. Introducing Copyright: A plain language guide to copyright in the 21st century. Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.
• Prabhala, A. 2010. Copyright and Open Educational Resources. Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.
• UNESCO. 2010. The ABC of Copyright. Paris: UNESCO

Open access online journals and OER knowledge cloud

(Search for Open Education, Open Educational Resources, OER, Open Access etc).

• The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning
• European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning

Special issues on openness in education

• Openness and the Future of Higher Education (Special Issue), 2009, Vol 10, No. 5, International Review of Open and Distance Learning
• Openness in Higher Education (Special Issue), 2013, Vol 5, No. 10, Open Praxis.
• JIME Special Issue on Open Educational Resouces. 2010, Journal of Interactive Media in Education.
• Open Educational Resources (Special Issue), 2010, Vol 24, No. 1. Open Learning.

Searchable web repositories

Web Resources

OER Knowledge Cloud, Hosted by the UNESCO-COL Chair, Athabasca University.