Exploring Open Educational Resources: Athabasca University Analysis

This report examines the differences between online educational content and openly licensed educational content, with a specific focus on the open educational resources (OER) provided by Athabasca University. The analysis includes a review of the relevance, accuracy, authenticity, and usefulness of the resources, such as journal articles and course materials. The report highlights the advantages of OER in both personal and professional life, illustrating how they can enhance knowledge, improve skills, and contribute to problem-solving in various domains. The conclusion emphasizes the value of OER for academic and professional development. The assignment also includes a comparison between OER and other online educational content, underscoring the benefits of free and accessible learning materials. The report concludes that OER are valuable for personal and professional development.

Distributed and open learning

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USE OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Difference between online educational content and openly licensed educational content........2
Online educational resources provided by ‘Athabasca University’...........................................2
Review of OER..........................................................................................................................2
Relevance...............................................................................................................................3
Accuracy................................................................................................................................3
Authenticity............................................................................................................................3
Usefulness..............................................................................................................................3
Advantage of OER in personal and professional life.................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................5

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USE OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Introduction
In this assignment an analysis will be done over the difference between online
educational content and openly licensed educational content. The open education resources
provided by ‘Athabasca University’ have been analysed. This university is providing free
access of Journal articles, books and course material. The important features of EOR will be
discussed in the assignment. The use of open education resources in personal and
professional life will be highlighted.
Difference between online educational content and openly licensed educational content
OER provides the free education facilities to any member and there are not any
charges or permission required to access the education facilities or resources for promoting
the education and knowledge. Whereas openly licensed educational content required some
permission and even charges to view the content of education (University, 2020).
Online educational resources provided by ‘Athabasca University’
OER provided by ‘Athabasca University’ like African Journals online, American
Chemical Society Journal and other library scholars journals are easily available which can
be used by students, researchers, teachers, professors and any other persons (Online, 2020).
Review of OER
All the journal articles provided by the ‘Athabasca University’ are very much relevant
to the subject. The observation of the African Journals online is reviewed and the results are
as follows:
Relevance
All the African Journals contain relevant information towards the subject. The highly
relevant and to the point information is very useful for analysing any subject. It is very
impossible to find irrelevant information in these journals because these are written by
sophisticated and well-known authors (Rory McGreal, 2020).
Accuracy

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USE OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
The information provided by the African Journals is very accurate and easy to
understand. Very accurate and exact information are provided by the resources of EOR. The
accuracy of the information is guaranteed because of the high quality of authors (Online,
2020).
Authenticity
The information in the journals is authentic and correct which is highly useful for
researchers. The information is very much reliable and taken from authentic sources (Online,
2020).
Usefulness
The information provided in the journals can be used by various purposes. Many
students use the OER to improve their performance by gathering knowledge about different
topics. These information is not only helpful for students but also very helpful for
researchers, healthcare professionals and people belongs from various streams (I Sapire,
2011).
Advantage of OER in personal and professional life
The OER are highly useful in gathering knowledge about any topic which can be used
for various purposes. Students use this information for their exams. Sometimes students use
this information for making assignments; presentations and doing research work for their
curriculum. Because of the credibility of the resources, these are highly useful for students
and trainers for improving their technical and academic skills (I Sapire, 2011).
The information provided by OER is extremely useful for improving the personal life
of a person. Knowledge of different sectors is very useful for the person because they can use
this knowledge in their real life. These EOR are very much useful in my life because I
applied this knowledge in my daily life (University, 2020).
For example: Knowledge related to various diseases and health played a very
important role in maintaining the health in my daily life. Precautions and other important
information related to health of the person can be applied in daily life to improve the health
conditions of the life (Online, 2020).

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USE OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
I used this information in solving many problems of my business. I deal with a lot of
challenges in my professional life but because of getting the information related to each and
every topic on EOR, I enabled to solve the problems related to my profession (I Sapire,
2011).
I realised that even in personal life, the answers of some crucial question may be
found in the resources of EOR which is extremely important to enhance various skills and
knowledge in day to day activities of the life which is very useful in improving the quality of
life of a person (Chen, 2010).
These EOR are very useful in improving the technical knowledge of the person. I use
the information in my professional life related to my business. If any problem arises in my
profession, I used this information in solving my problems (A Adams, 2013).
Conclusion
The EOR provided by various institutions are very much useful for the professional
and personal life of a person. I realised that these sources are very much useful not only for
academic purpose but also for professional life of a person. I used this information to perform
better in my professional life. Technical knowledge gathered by these resources in different
domains is very much credible and useful in solving many queries related to my profession.
Moreover, I gathered a lot of technical, academic and communication skills after reading and
understanding various sources of EOR.

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USE OF OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
References
A Adams, T. L. (2013). Use of open educational resources in higher education. British
Journal of Educational Technology, E149- E150.
Chen, Q. (2010). Use of open educational resources: Challenges and strategies. International
Conference on Hybrid Learning, 339-351.
I Sapire, Y. R. (2011). Collaborative design and use of open educational resources: a case
study of a mathematics teacher education project in South Africa. Distance
Education, 195-211.
Online, A. J. (2020, April 16). Welcome to AJOL! Retrieved from The official website of
African Journals Online: https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajol
Rory McGreal, T. A. (2020, April 16). Open Educational Resources in Canada 2015.
Retrieved from The website of ERIC: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1077808.pdf
University, A. (2020, April 16). Open Access Resources. Retrieved from The website of
library of Athabasca University:
http://library.athabascau.ca/OpenAccessResources.html