Reasons for Using Open Educational Resources (OER)

An OER platform is not just a databank of online resources, but also a platform supporting the design of innovative educational strategies, knowledge transfer and knowledge creation. These features, together with the development of online resources, enhance efficacy of teaching and learning.

How OER improves teaching

OER Platform courseware, open textbooks, etc.

• Provides open teaching resources for free • Permits reuse, revise, remix and redistribution of OER through open licenses to fulfill course objectives and cater for students’ needs

According to a survey about OER in Asia Pacific conducted by Wawasan Open University (2012) with 420 teacher respondents in total, below are some of the ways in which OER helps to improve teaching:

Pedagogical skills improved as teachers can integrate more materials into the textbooks they are using (90.28%).		Workload reduced as teachers can spend less time on material preparation (76.62%).
Content knowledge enriched as teachers can gain access to resources which are unavailable at schools (85.23%).		More integration of ICT in education as the OER platform helps teachers to stay up-to-date (71.61%).

Source: http://oercongress.weebly.com/uploads/4/1/3/4/4134458/oer_asia_trends_and_issues_2.pdf

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How OER improves learning

OER Platform courseware, open textbooks, etc.

• Provides open learning resources for free • Permits reuse, revise, remix and redistribution of OER through open licenses to suit one’s learning needs • Facilitates convenient mobile learning

According to a survey about OER in Asia Pacific conducted by Wawasan Open University (2012) with 420 teacher respondents in total, below are some of the ways in which OER helps to improve learning:

	• Students’ learning in general is improved. (94.06%) • Students’ learning motivation is increased. (93.38%) • Students can gain access to the most current development of the subject. (92.27%) • Students become more creative as they can adapt the resources for use. (88.86%) • Flexible learning is achieved. (83.03%) • Students have the chance to develop their critical thinking skills as they have to select the OER suitable for their own use. (76.03%)

Source: http://oercongress.weebly.com/uploads/4/1/3/4/4134458/oer_asia_trends_and_issues_2.pdf