The Potential of OERs for K-12 Schools: Why Policy Is Crucial to Success

Abstract

There is a growing body of work advocating the use of open educational resources (OERs) to enhance teaching and learning across all sectors: primary, second level and third level (Boyle & Ravenscroft, 2012; Ljubojevic & Laurillard, 2011; Smith & Casserly, 2006). The role of OERs in the development and improvement of teaching skills is also growing. However, there are still barriers preventing teachers from integrating OERs into their classroom (Ertmer et al., 2007; Taylor, 2008; West & Victor, 2011). One possible solution to overcoming these barriers is raising awareness of ICT and recognising the potential of OERs either by placing an emphasis on them during accredited initial teacher education programmes or through continuing professional development programmes aimed at existing teachers. Both national and international repositories (JORUM, MERLOT, MIT Open Courseware) offer educators free access to high-quality teaching resources which have been designed and developed by educators for educators. Therefore, the OERs are primarily pedagogically driven and not driven solely by the available technology. The majority of these OERs in these repositories are also shared under an open creative commons license allowing equitable access to all. This chapter discusses why it is necessary to put a policy in place to actively advocate and promote the use of OERs at second level.