Different Types of OER

The broad characterization of the two types of OER can be ‘BIG’ and ‘LITTLE’ OER. According to Hoyle 2009). 

Big OERs are led or supported by institutions that arise from projects such as OpenLearn or MIT OpenCourseWare. Their key characteristics are: high quality, contain explicit teaching aims, presented in a uniform style and form part of a time-limited, focused project with portal and associated research and data. 

Little OERs are produced individually with low cost resources. They can be are produced by anyone, not just educators or teachers. They may not have explicit educational aims. Their production quality may also be low. They are generally shared through a range of third party sites and services. 

The traffic to many of the big OER sites is impressive. Example: MIT OpenCourseWare averages 1 million visitors a month. Most big OER projects have a specific site associated with them. Their content may also be used to populate other portals and repositories as well.

Little OER tends to be found on third party, ‘web 2.0’ type services, such as Slideshare, YouTube, Scribd, etc. 

There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches of putting the resources on dedicated sites versus posting on third part sites. Summary is as follows:

	Specific Project Site (used for BIG OER)	Third party site (used by LITTLE OER)
Advantages	Greater brand link	Greater traffic
	Link through to courses	Cheaper
	Control	Greater serendipity or chances of finding
	Ability to conduct research	Expertise in social software development
Disadvantages	Requires specialist team	Can lose service
	Requires updating	No control e.g. over downtime
	Lower traffic	Loss of ownership of data
	More expensive	Other non-educational content also present

Big OER is often found in a specific repository and people have come to it with the intention of learning. It is placed within an educational context. Little OER is often placed on third party services which will contain a range of content and people may not have learning as their goal when encountering these resources. This may mean that a different audience is reached, but it may also result in any educational intention in the content being misconstrued or missed.

Institutionally or individually produced educational resources can be categorized as big and little OER. 

This categorization provides a lens on some of the issues and uses of the open education resources. One key difference is that of the intention of production. Big OERs are created for the specific purpose of learning. Whereas little OERs may be created from a variety of motivations – with educational intention ascribed to them by someone else. 

There are significant differences between the way in which these types of OERs are used and interpreted by audiences. These differences relate to quality, reputation and ease of production. The mix of both types of OERS could be the route to realising open education sustainably. Big OER raises the profile of open education. It can provide direction for reuse and overcome many of the objections based on quality and reliability. Little OER is a dynamic model. It encourages participation, and thus more sustainable. A mix of both has the potential to create a varied, engaging experience for the learners.

Different Types of OER © 2022 by  Mohammad Shoaib Haider is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0