Q. What is open education?

Open education serves as an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of practices aimed at making education and learning more accessible, inclusive, and collaborative.

• Open access refers to the free and immediate online availability of research outputs without access restrictions. It aims to make scholarly research accessible to everyone.
• Open assessment is a collaborative process where learning verification and feedback are facilitated through free-access tools. This approach allows both teachers and students to create, adapt, and reshape assessment resources to meet individual needs, learning styles, and contexts.
• Open data involves making research data freely available for everyone to use, remix and republish.
• Open educational practices (OEP) include the creation, use, and reuse of OERs, as well as pedagogical practices that promote peer learning, collaborative knowledge creation, and the empowerment of learners.
• Open educational resources (OERs) are freely accessible, openly licensed materials that can be used for teaching, learning and research. Examples include eTextbooks, course materials and multimedia resources.
• Open pedagogy involves teaching practices that engage students in the creation and sharing of knowledge. It emphasises collaboration, peer learning, and the use of open resources.
• Open policies are institutional, governmental, or organisational policies that support the adoption and implementation of open practices.

OERs are a potential solution for minimising student textbook costs.

Find OERs to support your teaching or learning, or contact your Liaison Librarian to discuss available options.