The concept of
Open Educational Resources (OER) describes any educational resources (including
curriculum maps, course materials, textbooks, streaming videos, multimedia
applications, podcasts, and any other materials that have been designed for use
in teaching and learning) that are openly available for use by educators and
students, without an accompanying need to pay royalties or licence fees. OER
has emerged as a concept with great potential to support educational
transformation so much so that it has been widely adapted throughout the world.
In this spirit, USM has embarked on promoting the OER concept as part of a
programme by the Centre of Development of Academic Excellence (CDAE) USM. CDAE
conducts workshops and training besides supporting USM staff to develop
materials pertaining to the concept of OER. This centre has also planned an
array of recording sessions for this semester for 19 courses involving 12
lecturers. These recorded videos will be an essential material in endorsing the
concept of sharing educational resources. It can be said that the OER concept
will constitute a large leap in USM’s educational principles via the increased
availability of high quality learning materials which consequently contribute
to more productive students and educators.
