Abstract
This chapter aims to present a brief overview of awareness and use of open education resources in PG students in Alagappa University. Analysis the areas for open education resources. The sample of the respondents had been drafted from the Alagappa University. A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed to the users from different categories and 144 were responded which amounts to 72% rate frequency of using of OER, it found that 51 (35.42%) respondents open educational resource daily, 69 (47.92%) respondents open educational resource weekly, 11 (7.64%) respondents open educational resource twice in a week, 13 (9.03%) respondents open educational resource monthly. This chapter presents the definition, challenges of open educational resource, advantages of open educational resource, awareness, and use of open education resources.
TopDefinitions Of Oers
The term open educational resources (OER) first came into use at a conference hosted by UNESCO in 2002, defined as “the open provision of educational resources, enabled by information and communication technologies, for consultation, use and adaptation by a community of users for non-commercial purposes” (John Stone, 2005). The definition of OER now most often used is: “open educational resources are digitized materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning and research”.
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Learning Content: Full courses, courseware, content modules, learning objects, collections and journals.
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Tools: Software to support the development, use, reuse and delivery of learning content, including searching and organization of content, content and learning management systems, content development tools, and online learning communities.
Challenges of Open Educational Resource (OER)
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Prohibition to use copyrighted material without consent.
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Lack of awareness among academics regarding copyright issues.
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Absence of technical skills.
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Unwillingness to share or give away intellectual property.
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Assuring quality in open content.
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Lack of resources to invest in broadband, hardware & software.
Advantages of Open Educational Resource (OER):
Aside from cost savings for students, benefits of using OER include:
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Expanded access to learning OER can be accessed anywhere at any time.
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Ability to modify course materials OERs can be modified to provide coverage only of topics relevant to a course.
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Enhancement of course material text can be supplemented by multimedia content (e.g., videos, simulations) to support multiple learning styles.
Review Of Literature
In user studies, after the data have been collected, the investigator turns to the task of analysing the data and interpreting the results. Analysis of data is the ultimate step in research process. It is a link between raw data and significant results leading to conclusions. This process of analysis has to be result oriented. In other words, it must aim at setting objectives and hypotheses. Qualitative data analysis is a search for general statements about relationships among categories of data.” The collected data are analysed with the help of various statistical measures. This process is known as interpretation. The problem for study is “Awareness and use of open education resources (OER) Among PG students: A study of Alagappa University.” The data collected by the investigator were organized and tabulated by using statistical measures such as tables and percentages.
Key Terms in this Chapter
World Digital Library (WDL): Makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.
OER: Commons was created as a network for teaching and learning materials, the web site offers engagement with resources in the form of social bookmarking, tagging, rating, and reviewing.
OpenStax: A non-profit digital ecosystem serving millions of users per month in the delivery of free educational content to improve learning outcomes.
WikiEducator: A community project working collaboratively with the Free Culture Movement towards a free version of the education curriculum by 2015. Driven by the learning for development agenda WikiEducator is developing free content for use in schools, polytechnics, universities, vocational education institutions and informal education settings.