E-learning as a new educational paradigm

Open Educational Resources (OER) represent digital resources for learning, teaching and research that are freely available, adaptable and redistributed under licenses that enable open use. The use and production of OER content is increasingly recognized as a key strategy for improving the quality of education, increasing accessibility and encouraging collaboration among teachers.

1. What is OER content?

Open Educational Resources (OER) encompass a variety of materials that can be freely used in education, research, and self-directed learning. These include digital textbooks, interactive simulations, presentations, tests, various interactive activities, as well as multimedia content such as videos, audio recordings, and texts. Some OER projects also offer complete e-courses that can serve as a foundation for learning or as a complement to existing programs.

OERs are most often published under Creative Commons licences that clearly define the terms of use, processing and sharing. This enables teachers and students to be not only passive users, but also active creators: they can freely adapt the contents to their own context, upgrade them with examples, translations or new activities and share them again with others.

More information about CC licenses is available at this link.

2. Benefits and challenges of incorporating OER into teaching

The inclusion of open educational resources (OER) in teaching brings a number of significant benefits for students and teachers. First of all, OER increases the accessibility of educational materials by removing financial and geographical barriers, as students from different parts of the world can use the same textbooks, courses or multimedia content without additional costs. The flexibility of use allows teachers to select, adapt and combine materials according to their own needs and course objectives, while students can learn at the pace that suits them best.

In addition, OERs encourage open pedagogy, an approach in which students and teachers actively participate in the creation and adaptation of content. This develops a sense of community and responsibility for learning. The use of OERs also encourages collaboration and the exchange of good practices among teachers, as materials are freely shared, improved and built upon. Finally, open resources reduce the cost of education, which allows students and institutions to have more equitable and sustainable access to knowledge.

The challenges of using OER include the variable quality of the material (which should always be checked before including it in your own e-course or teaching), the need for regular content updates, technical sustainability, and sometimes insufficient visibility of available resources (if they are downloaded from external sources). Teachers also need to invest additional time and support in adapting OER to their own context (significantly less than if they were to create them from scratch, but this still needs to be taken into account).

3. Creating OER content – pedagogical, technical and legal aspects

The creation of open educational resources (OER) requires careful planning and alignment of pedagogical, technical and legal aspects.

From a pedagogical point of view, it is important that the contents are clearly linked to the learning outcomes, structured in a logical and reviewed way, and adapted to different learning styles. Teachers should use methods that encourage interactivity and engagement, for example with the help of tests, multimedia content or self-checking tasks.

The technical aspect involves choosing formats and tools that allow for easy creation, sharing, and reuse of materials. Popular tools for creating OER include H5P for interactive content, Canva for creating graphics and presentations, Audacity for recording and editing audio, OBS Studio for recording and streaming lectures, and Moodle LMS for publishing and organizing content into e-courses. Accessibility is key, so content should be compatible with screen readers, mobile-friendly, and technically stable.

The legal aspect refers to the respect of copyright and the selection of an appropriate license. The most frequently used licences are the Creative Commons licenses, which clearly define the terms of sharing, processing and commercial use. Authors should be careful about the use of images, texts and multimedia from external sources and check whether they have permission to include them.

In addition, attention should be paid to the quality of the material, ensuring that the content is up-to-date, accurate, methodologically well-designed, and aligned with educational standards. In this way, OER becomes not only free, but also a quality resource that truly contributes to education.

4. Platforms and tools for OER

There are numerous platforms that offer access to OER content. Examples include OpenStax (digital textbooks), OER Commons (open repository of educational materials), MERLOT (multidisciplinary resource base), and MIT OpenCourseWare (full e-course content) or Khan Academy (interactive courses and video materials). Such resources significantly contribute to the democratization of education and encourage a culture of knowledge sharing.

5. The role of teachers and institutions

The successful inclusion of open educational resources (OER) requires a combination of efforts by individual teachers and institutional support that should facilitate their work. Teachers have a key role because they become designers of digital educational materials: they create new content, adapt existing OER materials to their educational context and the specifics of e-colleges, and continuously evaluate their quality and pedagogical value. Thus, they move from the traditional role of lecturers to active creators of knowledge. Such an approach requires developed digital and authoring competencies that include knowledge of tools for creating digital content, understanding of the principles of open pedagogy, and awareness of copyright and licenses.

Institutions have a responsibility to create an environment that encourages teachers to use and develop OER. This includes systematically evaluating and recognizing work on open educational resources, offering professional development and training programs, as well as technical and advisory support. It is also important that institutions promote open education as part of their strategy and quality culture. Only through joint action by teachers and institutions can the sustainability and wider use of OER in higher education be ensured.

OER content is not only educational material - it is a tool for the democratization of knowledge, support for inclusive and quality education, and an opportunity to strengthen cooperation, innovation and transparency in the education system. By actively participating in the production and use of OER, teachers take an active role in shaping open, relevant and sustainable education for the future. You can read more about OER in this PDF leaflet.