Rambling aside, a quick definition of...
- Big OER: produced formally in a large scale, for example by big institutions - MIT Open CourseWare or OpenLearn.
- Little OER: produced by individuals, for example, on a smaller scale, perhaps the by product of already existing resources.
- Development of institutional relationships/networks
- Provision of knowledge to the public
- Wider access (easier to find)
- Product of substantial investment
- Good quality
- Free
- Production high costs
- Not very re-usable
- Difficulties incorporating Web 2.0/social technology
- Re-use/re-purposing of existing resources
- Can be produced using little effort
- No planning needed (project management?)
- Scope for better promotion of sustainability
- Cheap
- Better integration with Web 2.0/social media
- Perhaps too contextualised
- May require culture change with individuals/small institutions (for production)
- Resources require updating digitally (re-purposed)
- problems with legitimate re-use
- Poor quality/lack of reputation
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References
Weller, M. (2009) Big OER and Little OER. [Online] Available at: http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2009/12/the-politics-of-oer.html. (Accessed 8th April 2013)
Ignoring the rest of the post (sorry) I *think* this is the first post I've read where someone has actually referred to using OERs themselves, hurrah!
ReplyDeleteVery nice list of advantages and disadvantages here. One other thing I was thinking of as a disadvantage for little OER is what is an advantage for big--big can be much easier to find, and little not so much. It depends on where the little are stored, of course, but if it's on blogs, as Weller's "Public Engagement as Collateral Damage" suggests it might be, then that stuff will be much harder to find.
ReplyDeleteAlso, wondering about "problems with legitimate re-use" with little OER. Not sure what you mean by that. Does it have to do with the licensing of the works?