http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ A search of MERLOT materials Copyright 1997-2013 MERLOT. All rights reserved. Sat, 25 May 2013 09:32:43 PDT Sat, 25 May 2013 09:32:43 PDT http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/images/merlot.gif http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ 44 34 http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=760209 In the last decade in particular, the promotion, sharing and use of open educational resources (OER) have been growing exponentially. However, as with any new phenomenon or paradigm, our knowledge of OER’s ramifications and achievements to date necessarily lags behind actual developments.The concept of OER has multifaceted dimensions and implications. For educational institutions, the dimensions are legal, managerial, financial, technical, technological and pedagogical; for practising educators, at stake are ways of teaching that are normative, together with a sense of identity that is both personal and professional. It would be astonishing if research, which by its very nature must be clearly focussed, were able to keep abreast of all such aspects of OER.Although OER activities are taking place globally, most large and well funded projects have been in North America and Europe. As a result, little is known about important questions such as how the more acute levels of resource constraint typical of developing countries impact on demand for OER and on their reuse. The case studies and reflections in this book cover OER practice and policy in a diverse range of contexts, with a strong focus on events in developing countries. However, the focus on experiences from the developing world is not exclusive, as valuable “generic lessons” applicable also to developing countries can be drawn from research in the more developed countries.The world in which the academy and higher education operate has transformed dramatically. How do institutions, in both developed and developing countries, reposition themselves meaningfully within the new information-rich world in which information is accessible as never before? How can organisations such as UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning foster governmental support for OER internationally? How might proponents of OER garner greater governmental, institutional and educator “buy-in” to the principles of open educational practices, and to the policies and programs necessary to realise and sustain OER? http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=760201 This book, initiated by the UNESCO/COL Chair in OER, is one in a series of publications by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) examining OER. It describes the movement in detail, providing readers with insight into OER’s significant benefits, its theory and practice, and its achievements and challenges. The 16 chapters, written by some of the leading international experts on the subject, are organised into four parts by theme:OER in Academia – describes how OER are widening the international community of scholars, following MIT’s lead in sharing its resources and looking to the model set by the OpenCourseWare ConsortiumOER in Practice – presents case studies and descriptions of OER initiatives underway on three continentsDiffusion of OER – discusses various approaches to releasing and “opening” content, from building communities of users that support lifelong learning to harnessing new mobile technologies that enhance OER access on the InternetProducing, Sharing and Using OER – examines the pedagogical, organisational, personal and technical issues that producing organisations and institutions need to address in designing, sharing and using OER http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=760240 Higher education has experienced phenomenal growth in all parts of Asia over the last two decades — from the Korean peninsula in the east to the western borders of Central Asia. This expansion, coupled with a diversity of delivery and technology options, has meant that more and more young Asians are experiencing tertiary education within their own countries. In South, South East and Far East Asia especially, universities, polytechnics, colleges and training institutes with a variety of forms, structures, academic programmes and funding provisions have been on an almost linear upward progression.Notwithstanding this massive expansion, equitable access is still a challenge for Asian countries. There is also concern that expansion will erode quality. The use of digital resources is seen as one way of addressing the dual challenges of quality and equity. Open educational resources (OER), free of licensing encumbrances, hold the promise of equitable access to knowledge and learning. However, the full potential of OER is only realisable with greater knowledge about OER, skills to effectively use them and policy provisions to support their establishment in Asian higher education.This book, the result of an OER Asia research project hosted and implemented by the Wawasan Open University in Malaysia, with support from Canada’s International Development Research Centre, brings together ten country reports and ten case studies on OER in the Asian region that highlight typical situations in each context. China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam all receive extensive treatment, as do the multi-regional initiatives of the Virtual Academy for the Semi-Arid Tropics.While interest in and the production, distribution and use of OER are still very much in the early stages of development in most parts of Asia, OER’s potential value to improve the quality of curriculum, content and instruction, facilitate academic collaboration and enhance equitable access to knowledge resources cannot be overstated. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=735831 This site has some links to free online textbooks. A couple were only samples, but the rest were full textbooks for free. Download and viewing options vary as these are links offsite. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=735824 ״Bookboon's free online textbooks for students are focused and to the point. They are all written by highly respected professors from top universities in the world and cover topics such as economics, statistics, IT, engineering and natural science.״Each book can be downloaded as a PDF from this site. All of these books are already cataloged separately in MERLOT. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=735854 This site has a large collection of free textbooks in a 21 different subjects and SAT prep . All are available for free download in PDF, MOBI or EPUB, after free registration. The PDFs load immediately. The MOBI abd EPUB are generated and a download link is emailed to you. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=735856 'The Community College Open Textbooks Collaborative is funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. This collection of sixteen educational non-profit and for-profit organizations, affiliated with more than 200 colleges, is focused on driving awareness and adoptions of open textbooks to more than 2000 community and other two-year colleges. This includes providing training for instructors adopting open resources, peer reviews of open textbooks, and mentoring online professional networks that support for authors opening their resources, and other services.'The formation of the College Open Textbooks coincides with the growing international interest in open educational resources and the need to move to open digital textbooks as a way to help financially distressed states such as California reduce the cost of public education.The focus of these efforts could save students millions of dollars by increasing the number of open high-quality textbooks available online as alternatives to expensive printed textbooks sold by publishers. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=735845 This site has a large collection of links to free texttbooks online in a good number of subjects. Links are offsite so download and viewing options vary. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=735868 'This site lists free online computer science, engineering and programming books, textbooks and lecture notes, all of which are legally and freely available over the Internet. Throughout this site, other terms are used to refer to a book, such as ebook, text, document, monogram or notes.' http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=735890 This site has links to 160 free textbooks online in 19 different subjects. Download and viewing options vary as these are links to a variety of sites.