Open Education

The term Open Education refers to educational practices and resources that can be used, shared, and adapted in the digital environment.

The  2007 Cape Town Open Education Declaration stated that open education and the use of open educational resources (OER) contribute “to making education more accessible, especially where money for learning materials is scarce. They also nourish the kind of participatory culture of learning, creating, sharing and cooperation that rapidly changing knowledge societies need.” The promotion of OER was further supported by the  UNESCO Paris OER Declaration [pdf] as a way to promote lifelong learning.

The basis for Open Education is the use of OER which the OER Commons notes are. “teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse, without charge”. These materials generally have a Creative Commons license which provides permission indicating how the materials can be used, reused, adapted, or shared. OERs can be as simple as an assignment to a textbook or full course.