In this video, Neil talks to leading Open Educational Resources practitioner Antonio Martinez Arboleda from the University of Leeds about OERs. Whilst the focus of this discussion is on Higher Education, it is all relevant to teachers and trainers in all education sectors.

Antonio introduces the concepts of openness, collaboration and sharing using resources available on the web, licenced using Creative Commons. Antonio also talks about the benefits of learners creating OERs and the skills and benefits they gain from the process.

Open educational resources (OERs) are learning and teaching materials that are freely available online for anyone to use. OERs can consist of full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, videos, tests, software and any other tools, materials or techniques used to support access to knowledge. Normally, small units of OER (eg. animations, videos, podcasts, etc) are most attractive to educators from both the re-use and production angles, as they are easier to embed into existing classroom or online learning activities. Many teachers embed OER material into teaching sessions (eg. Classroom sessions, practical classes, workshops, seminars) and/or provide links to OERs via the VLE to enhance self-directed learning opportunities.

(Text and Video Copyright University of Leeds)