Open Educational Resources (OER): A Leading Force in Enhancing Access to Quality Education and Training

Abstract

Education institutions world over have turned to the Internet and other digital technologies to develop and enhance teaching and learning. Recently, Open Educational Resources (OER) has gained accelerated focus for their potential to transcend geographic, socio-cultural, economic and educational boundaries and to promote life-long learning. The rapid expansion of OER provides new and great opportunities, but at the same time, they challenge existing views on teaching and learning practices. There are many critical issues surrounding access, quality and costs of information and knowledge over the Internet as well as on provision of content and learning material. As the world acknowledges that the growth of Internet brings real opportunities for improving access and transfer of knowledge and information to a wide range of users, there is an urgent need to clarify these issues with special focus on Open Educational Resources initiatives. This paper examines the concept of Open Education Resources and its interplay with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) with a view to encouraging their production and use. The author also shares experience from Mombasa Technical Training Institute, Kenya, in developing open online courses. // Paper ID: 373