1. Wikipedia as OER:
Literature review
Ulises Hernandez Pino
Maria del Pilar Saenz
OER Researchers
Karisma Foundation
Bangalore - January 23, 2014

2. 1. What are the definitions about OER?
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UNESCO: "teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise,
that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits
no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited
restrictions".
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation: "teaching, learning, and research
resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual
property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others".
OECD: "digitised materials offered freely and openly for educators, students, and selflearners to use and reuse for teaching, learning, and research".
The Commonwealth of Learning (CoL): "materials offered freely and openly to use and
adapt for teaching, learning, development and research".
Wikieducator: "refers to educational resources that are freely available for use, reuse,
adaptation, and sharing".
OER Commons: "teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse,
without charge. OER often have a Creative Commons or GNU license that state
specifically how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared".
… OER definitions encompass far!
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_educational_resources
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/What_is_OER%3F
Wikipedia as OER: Initial justification

3. 2. Key elements in the definition of OER
1. Teaching or learning
resources: Courseware,
Texbook, Videos, Lesson plans,
Quizzes, Syllabus, Simulations,
Learning Objects, Software,
Platforms, etc.
2. Access, use, adaptation
and redistribution are
permitted by authors:
Creative Commons family licenses.
www.unesco.org
Jonathas Mello CC By
3. No-cost and No technical
barriers: Access on Internet and
use of standards.
Wikipedia as OER: Initial justification

4. 3. Relationship between OER and Wikipedia
1. Encyclopedia is a
summary of knowledge.
2. Articles licensed with
Creative Commons
Attribution – Share Alike
and collaboratively
edited.
3. No-cost Internet access
and html standard
commons.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia All rights reserved
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia
Wikipedia as OER: Initial justification

5. 4. Discussions about OER
What are the
educational
resources?
“The term educational is not unambiguous.
Does it mean that only materials produced
with the intention of being used within formal
educational settings should be included? If
so it would exclude resources produced
outside schools or universities but used in
formal courses, and materials produced
inside such institutions but used for informal
or non-formal learning outside” (Hylén, 2005,
p. 2; OECD, 2007, p. 36).
Wikipedia is used to learn inside and
outside of the classroom
Source:
Downes (2007),
Wikipedia as OER: Initial justification

6. 4. Discussions about OER
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How “open” is the
resource?
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Foote defines "Four Freedoms: copy,
modify, redistribute, redistribute modified
versions” (Downes, 2007, p. 32).
Daniel speaks of “the 4 As: accessible,
appropriate, accredited, affordable”
(Hylén, 2005, p. 2).
Wiley identified four "R’s": Reuse,
Redistribute, Revise, Remix (Hilton et al.,
2011, p. 5)
Wikipedia as resource is highly “open”
Wikipedia as OER: Initial justification

7. 4. Discussions about OER
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How sustainable
is to provide Nocost resources
to users?
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Since distribution of educational
resources on Internet is no-cost, it does
not mean that production and creation
are as well (Butcher, 2011, p. 14).
The major cost in the production of
educational resources was paying
people. Costs can be reduced with the
formation of a community of volunteers
(Wiley, 2007, p. 6).
There are different models for operating
funds (Downes, 2007).
Wikipedia has a community of volunteers
and a donations model that works
Wikipedia as OER: Initial justification

8. Relevant Literature about OER
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UNESCO (2012). País OER Declaration. Link
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Neil Butcher (2011). A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources. CoL. Link
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Daniel et al. (2007). A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement.
Hewlett. Link
Jan Hylén (2005). Open Educational Resources: Opportunities and Challenges.
OECD. Enlace
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Cheryl Hodgkinson-Williams et al. (2009). Degrees of Openness. Link
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Hilton, Wiley et al. (2011). The Four R’s of Openness and ALMS Analysis. Link
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OECD. (2007). Giving Knowledge for Free: The emergence OER. Link
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Stephen Downes (2007). Models for Sustainable Open Educational Resources. Link
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David Wiley (2007). On the sustainability of Open Educational Resource Initiatives in
Higher Education. OECD. Link
Steve Foerster. (2013). Using Wikipedia Articles for Rapid Deployment of OER
Textbooks. Link
Wikipedia as OER: Initial justification

9. Questions?
Ulises Hernandez Pino
uhernandez@gmail.com
María del Pilar Sáenz
mapisaro@gmail.com
The authors deliver this presentation with a license
Creative Commons Attribution – Share Alike
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

10. Questions?
Ulises Hernandez Pino
uhernandez@gmail.com
María del Pilar Sáenz
mapisaro@gmail.com
The authors deliver this presentation with a license
Creative Commons Attribution – Share Alike
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/