Thread:Quality of OER (3)

Dear Steve, Hi, thank you for these two questions. You raise a fundamental concern. Fitness-for-purpose and every characterisation of OER depends upon what it is and supposed to be or do. It is intended to be ‘open’ (and also intended to be ‘educational’). Since it is intended to be open, then we need to understand what we mean by ‘open’ hence the need for the definition of openness with respect to how it is used in the term ‘open educational resource’. Originally ‘open’ was used in a definition of OER to cover the characteristics of ‘open to reuse’ and this was instrumental through attaching Creative Commons licences for expanding sharing and reuse around the world. Now we are looking at inclusivity and accessibility, and how definition of ‘open’ as used in ‘open access’ can influence the development of OER - particularly in assuring quality. As for your closed curricula, these may have quality characteristics worthwhile considering here - for example when we are developing OER we also need to apply these within a lesson or pathway. They need to fitted into a pedagogically sound teaching/learning approach. So QA for courses and for curricula are also of interest. cheers paul