From the Commonwealth of Learning … a new publication about OERs
…

 Perspectives on Open and Distance Learning:
Open Educational Resources: Innovation, Research and Practice

Rory McGreal, Wanjira Kinuthia and Stewart Marshall, Eds. May 2013

Published jointly by the Commonwealth of Learning and Athabasca University, Canada (UNESCO/COL Chair in OER) as CC-BY-SA and freely available to all: www.col.org/psOERIRP. Available in PDF and epub formats.

This book is one in a series of OER resources published by COL. It describes the OER movement in detail, providing readers with insight into OER’s significant benefits, its theory and practice, and its achievements and challenges. The 16 chapters, written by some of the leading international experts on the subject, are organised into four parts by theme:

• OER in Academia: describes how OER are widening the international community of scholars, following MIT’s lead in sharing its resources and looking to the model set by the OpenCourseWare Consortium

• OER in Practice: presents case studies and descriptions of OER initiatives underway on three continents

• Diffusion of OER: discusses various approaches to releasing and “opening” content, from building communities of users that support lifelong learning to harnessing new mobile technologies that enhance OER access on the Internet

• Producing, Sharing and Using OER: examines the pedagogical, organisational, personal and technical issues that producing organisations and institutions need to address in designing, sharing and using OER

Instructional designers, curriculum developers, educational technologists, teachers, researchers, students, others involved in creating, studying or using OER: all will find this timely resource informative and inspiring.