Introduction: the need for Open Educational Resources

Abstract

Open Educational Resources (OER) are important learning materials with the potential to facilitate the expansion of learning worldwide. The flexibility, both technological and legal, afforded by openly licensed content is an important pre-condition for supporting the educational use of content. Open standards support the deployment of learning objects as OER on a wide variety of different devices, whether mobile, on the desktop or in print. The open licence frees instructors and learners from concerns about permissions, as well as about how, when, where and how long the content, video, audio or application can be used. The UNESCO Paris Declaration on OER (2012) begins with the premise that “everyone has the right to education,” referring to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international recommendations and agreements. The participating countries support the OER movement, encouraging OER development and adaptation, research and, especially, the open licensing of all government-sponsored publications.