The Use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Digital Pedagogy

The cost of education has increased significantly as educational systems have been digitalized. Governments, schools, parents, and students must allocate significant amounts of money to ensure access to the digital technologies and resources required for quality teaching and learning. While digital tools can help teachers develop and use teaching materials of high quality, many educators lack the time, experience, competencies, or appropriate digital technologies to do so effectively. In the digital era, it is thus crucial to provide digital educational resources to those who need them in teaching and learning. These resources must be widely available, licensed, and free to all. The Open Educational Resources (OER) concept introduced in 2002 addresses this need. This chapter defines and provides an overview of OER, and elaborates on its benefits for both instructors and students. It also provides strategies for overcoming barriers to OER adoption and its effective development and use by instructors, learners and researchers.