Open Educational Resources

The discussion on Open Educational Resources that we had with our guest speaker was very informative and meaningful. Before the discussions we had to read an article and learn about OERs from different sources. As far as I could understand the mission of OERs is to provide all kind of learners with digital materials for teaching, learning, research, etc. Here are some examples of OER: quizzes, tests, syllabi, lectures, textbooks, different activities, variety of games, etc.

OER is widely used across the world. The main advantages are the following:

ü  It focuses on learner involvement

ü  It creates space for individual learning

ü  The students are to choose from various resources on their own

ü  It supports lifelong learning

ü  It saves time and effort

ü  It is flexible in selecting from a wide range of materials for teaching and learning

ü  It promotes critical thinking and problem solving

However, learners should be very careful in choosing materials and try not to violate copyright laws. Naturally, face-to face interaction equals to zero.

There is some OER development in Armenia. Our speaker mentioned that there were no major changes in that direction as many OERs faced challenges, like mentality, lack of quality and financial support, etc. Thus, I do hope that the success stories that she told us and the overall movement that was going on in that direction would bring the desired results.