OER Footprints Bridging the Educational Digital Divide in India

Abstract

Openness has been a feature of higher education for many decades, particularly through the establishment of open universities, although there remain debates about what openness means in practice. Digital technologies, some based on open principles and digital content, aided by open licences, have both contributed recently to an extension of what is deemed possible under the heading of openness. The open knowledge movement seeks to restore the balance of information power by breaking down knowledge silos and ensuring everyone can access information that is relevant and useful to them and to society as a whole. Learners are accessing digital learning resources on the World Wide Web (WWW) without cost. This new approach for providing knowledge has led to open knowledge movement through Open Educational Resources (OERs) and Massive Open Online Courses. This paper reviews some of the evidence supporting these different areas of interest and attempts to provide a synthesis of them. This paper further highlights what is open knowledge, why it is needed, openness for higher education, open knowledge movement in education, digital divide and promises of OERs, why do need OERs and major OERs initiatives worldwide in general and in India particular.