OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Initiatives Open Course Wares: INTRODUCTION: OpenCourseWare, or OCW, is a term associated to course materials in a

1. virtual learning environment created by universities/organizations and shared freely with the world through the internet. They offer free courses in almost all disciplines of all levels. DESCRIPTION: The OCW movement began with the launch of MIT OpenCourseWare at MIT (Massachusetts Institutes of Technology) in October 2002. Since then, a number of universities have created OCW projects. Most commonly OpenCourseWare resources explored: MIT : Massachusetts Institute of Technology-- MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a webbased publication of virtually all MIT course content. The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the world in the 21st century. MIT published the first content site in 2002, containing 50 courses. By November 2007, it completed the initial publication of the entire curriculum virtually, over 1,800 courses in 33 academic disciplines. According to the website of the OCW Consortium, an OCW project:

is a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials, organized as courses. is available for use and adaptation under an open license, such as a Creative Commons license. does not typically provide certification or access to instructors.

This open Educational Source has a wonderful use to: Show science demonstrations by MIT faculty in your classroom. Provide alternate explanations to reinforce key concepts. Guide students to additional homework problems and exam examples. Add to your knowledge. A Screenshot: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

o OER Commons: Open Educational Resources for all across the world

Screenshot: http://www.oercommons.org/oer

o Connexions: Connexions is a Content Commons of free, open-licensed educational materials in fields such as music, electrical engineering and psychology. The content in Connexions comes in two formats: modules, which are like small "knowledge chunks," and collections, groups of modules structured into books.

A Screenshot: http://cnx.org/

o OER Africa: OER Africa provides you access to all the information you will need to learn
about and benefit from Open Educational Resources (OER)

A Screenshot: http://www.oerafrica.org/

o Curriki: Curriki's mission is to provide free, high-quality curricula and education resources to teachers, students and parents around the world.

A Screenshot: http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome

o Xpert: The endeavor of XPERT is to develop the vision of e-learning resource for sharing and re-use. Learners and educators can use XPERT to search a growing database of open learning resources suitable for students at all levels of study in a wide range of different subjects. A Screenshot: www.nottingham.ac.uk/xpert

o Wikieducator: Turning the digital divide into digital dividends using free content and open networks. WikiEducator believes learning materials should be free for all students of the world. A Screenshot: http://wikieductator.org/Main_Page

o Academic earth : a user-friendly educational ecosystem that offers internet users around the world the ability to easily find, interact with, and learn from full video courses and lectures from the worlds leading scholars.

A Screenshot: http://academicearth.org/

o Edna Online: is a network of the education and training community. It includes government and non-government schooling systems, early childhood, vocational and technical education, adult and community education and higher education. A Screenshot: http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go

o JorumOpen : This site offers free and share learning and teaching resources available to all. All resources within JorumOpen are available under a Creative Commons License. A Screenshot: http://open.jorum.ac.uk/xmlui

o Open & Free courses: Open Learning Initiatives (OLI) offers free online course materials that enact instruction for an entire course. No instructors, no credits, no charge. Use these self-guiding materials and activities to learn at your own pace! A Screenshot: http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/index.php?

o Virginia Open Education Foundation: 'Bringing open educational content resources to Virginia K12 Schools' under Creative Commons License. A Screenshot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Open_Education_Foundation

CLASS ROOM USE: The open courses / resources have sundry uses for teachers as well as for the students. For teachers: They can broaden their vista of knowledge and add flavor to their style of classroom transaction devise their own such contents do research and expand their skill and subject competency assess their own level of understanding on a particular topic / discipline For students: They can carry on the task of learning in any discipline even without the assistance of a teacher

have mastery over a subject / topic and make an assessment thereof learn anything even in their own rooms via internet without making any physical movement outside evaluate and test his / her learning efficiency

2. Open Books Resources:

INTRODUCTION: The Open Book Resources available on the internet (free of cost) seeks to encourage and coordinate collaboration among students and teachers for the development of high quality, freely distributable textbooks and educational materials on a wide range of topics. They can be downloaded and used for academic purposes without the authors permission by simple registration on the particular site. But using the same for the commercial purposes or alteration thereof is violation of copyright act. DESCRIPTION: The advent of the Internet and the World Wide Web are making collaboration among educators on a global scale possible for the first time. We need to harness this exciting technology to promote learning and sharing. Most commonly Open Books Resources explored: o Textbook revolution: Textbook Revolution is a student-run site dedicated to increasing the use of free educational materials by teachers and professors. They hope to get these materials into classrooms. Their approach is to bring all of the free textbooks into the hands of students in classrooms around the world. At Textbook Revolution, one finds links to textbooks and select educational resources of all kinds. Some of the books are PDF files; others are viewable online as e-books. Most books are aimed at undergraduates, but there are at least a few resources at every level, from kindergarten onwards. A Screenshot: http://textbookrevolution.org/index.php/ain_page

o CK-12 Foundation FlexBooks: CK-12 Foundation is a non-profit organization with a mission to reduce the cost of textbook materials for the K-12 market both in the U.S. and

worldwide. By using the "FlexBook," they intend to pioneer the generation and distribute high quality educational content as core text for an adaptive environment of learning. A Screenshot: http://www.ck12.org/flexr/

o Wikibooks: Open Books for an open world. This is a part of the WIKI that allows any one to download a resource worth referring in the PDF form, a book form or printable version. Unlimited resources can be explored on any topic and in any discipline at ones choice and need. This is the site that offers one the opportunity to be author, editor and user of the content. A Screenshot: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_page

Opentextbooks: The Open textbooks referred here are complete digital textbooks that are accessible online at no cost, and inexpensive to purchase printed as a book. The educational material inside open textbooks is similar to traditional texts - the difference is that open textbooks are licensed to allow users to legally access and reformat copies of the text at no additional cost. This gives students the choice to read their textbooks in multiple print and digital formats. A Screenshot: http://studentpirgs.org/open-textbooks?id=wi

o Free High School Science Texts: The Free High School Science Textbook (FHSST) project is the contribution towards furthering Science Education in South Africa. Science education is about more than Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics... It's about acquiring knowledge to think and to solve problems. Core objectives of this site are:

To provide a complete high school science text that can be used for free anywhere else in the world as needed To provide a free resource, that can be used alone or in conjunction with other education initiatives in South Africa, to any/all learners and teachers To provide a detailed, accurate and interesting text that adheres to the South African school curriculum and the outcomes-based education system To provide a text that is easy to read and understand even for second-language English speakers Make a difference by helping the next generation

A Screenshot: http://www.fhsst.org

o The global text project: They maintain the chapters for all Global Text Project books in open document format with extensive use of style sheets so that we can quickly convert them into different media or formats. Global Text Project books have been internationalized and converted to a standard format using Open Office. One can access a chapter in open document format and modify it to meet ones need. They control changes to the master version of each chapter. There are two ways to find books, either by directory or by search. A Screenshot: http://globaltext.terry.uga.edu/books

o Scribd.com: Scribd is a social publishing site, where tens of millions of people share original writings and documents. Millions of documents and books of your choice at your fingertips! Read, print, download, and send them to your mobile devices instantly. One can upload ones PDF, Word, and PowerPoint docs to share them with the world's largest community of readers and be an author too. Scribd's vision is to liberate the written word. A Screenshot: www.scribd.com

o Project Guttenberg: Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. It is a free service open to all with no membership required. It aims at encouraging the creation and distribution of eBooks. This is the place where one can download over 33,000 free ebooks to read on ones PC, iPad, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, Android, or other portable devices. A Screenshot: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

o Getfreeebooks.com: Getfreeebooks.com is a free ebooks site where one can download free books, totally free. The ebooks which one finds in this site are collected from all over the net. All the ebooks within this site are legally downloadable free ebooks. One can use these books for the academic purposes or reference or A Screenshot: http://www.getfreeebooks.com/?page_id=6

o Free-Ebook-Download: This site has uncountable volumes of ebooks on almost subjects and disciplines. The simple procedure of downloading the free ebooks is to install the download software provided by the site and get registered. Only then they allow the users to download the free ebooks. One can enjoy choosing the books of ones choice. A Screenshot: http://www.free-ebook-download.net/

o USES OF OPEN BOOKS RESOURCES IN THE CLASSROOM: Usefulness of the Open Book Resources has proved to be a blessing in disguise in the modern times and is of the utmost use for the students and the teachers in the classroom as they can: Enrich their horizon of understanding a topic / content / issue Go beyond the textbooks and explore extra information than given in the prescribed syllabus Choose a book of their choice on any topic / content / issue / free of cost Easily carry uncountable volumes in USB storage data card anywhere they like Make their own sharing content wealthy by adding information from them Share them among friend and community for their utmost exploration Make their own library of digital books of their choice at no cost Further, these resources can be of great value for the book reviewers, book bloggers, library & webmasters too.

3. Open Access Journals:

INTRODUCTION: Open access journals are scholarly journals that are available online to the readers without financial, legal, or technical barriers. One can enrich or broaden his / her horizon of knowledge and thinking by accessing to them with few clicks at no cost.

DESCRIPTION: The primary advantage of open access journals is that the entire content is available to users everywhere regardless of affiliation with a subscribing library. The only thing required in this connection is the internet accessibility. Some of the journals allow downloading and editing and using with proper citation; but some of them dont. They simply allow the readers to access them online. Open access journals may be considered to be:

Journals entirely open access Journals with research articles open access (hybrid open access journals) Journals with some research articles open access (hybrid open access journals) Journals with some articles open access and the other delayed access Journals with delayed open access (delayed open access journals) Journals permitting self-archiving of articles

Most commonly Open Access Journals explored: o Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ): Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals. They aim at covering all subjects and languages. There are now 5191 journals in the directory. Currently 2150 journals are searchable at article level. By now 417368 articles are included in the DOAJ service. They provide links to the further journals. To access them fully in the prescribed format one needs to register first. A Screenshot: http://www.doaj.org/

o Academic Open Internet Journal (Most Advanced Science Journal): The Academic Open Internet Journal aims to promote the use of the Internet and development of scientific network resources to enable scientists and readers to better communicate and to actively encourage their use throughout the academic community. Full format of published papers at AOIJ are free for reading through Internet. There are NO subscription fees. A Screenshot: http://www.acadjournal.com/

o Public Knowledge Project: The Public Knowledge Project is dedicated to improving the scholarly and public quality of research. It provides the leading open source software for journal and conference management and publishing. To use the journals from this site one has to download the free downloadable software and install it locally on the system. There are a lot of scholarly articles on sundry topics for the academic purposes. A Screenshot: http://pkp.sfu.ca/about

o OpenJ-Gate: Open J-Gate is an electronic gateway to global journal literature in open access domain. Open J-Gate is the contribution of Informatics (India) Ltd to promote OAI. Open JGate provides seamless access to millions of journal articles available online. Open J-Gate is also a database of journal literature, indexed from 7323 open access journals, with links to full text at Publisher sites. It aims to promote models that ensure free and unrestricted access to scholarly & research journals. A Screenshot: http://www.openj-gate.com/Search/QuickSearch.aspx

o Bentham Science Publishers: Bentham Science Publishers launch more than 200 peerreviewed open access journals, under the banner of "BENTHAM OPEN". These free-to-view online journals cover all major disciplines of science, technology, and medicine. They are freely downloadable in PDF format on ones system at no cost and no registration. A Screenshot: http://www.bentham.org/index.htm

o National Science Teachers Association: The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), in Virginia, is the largest organization in the world committed to promoting excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all. It is a member-driven organization. They publish books and journals for science teachers from kindergarten onwards. They provide ways for science teachers to connect with one another. This site offers wonderful academics resources in the form of journals and books related to science. One requires to register simply for the use, exploration and downloading the content in the

PDF format at no cost. Some of the resources are copyright. We may require permission to download and use them. A screenshot: http://www.nsta.org/about/?lid=tnav

4. Open Source Multimedia:

INTRODUCTION: Multimedia involves multiple modalities of text, audio, images, drawings, animation, and video almost all at one point. And if we talk about it in terms of education, it is hitherto termed as Educational Multimedia. When it is accessible openly to the public at no cost, it is coined as Open Source Educational Multimedia. DESCRIPTION: With the advent of the Internet, there has been constant endeavour to facilitate the needy hands. And helping the future generation with skilled hand is the prime task of the stakeholders who are the pioneers in this field. There are numerous platforms which offer such services at no cost. The motto of such sites is to prepare a visionary generation. Most commonly Open Source Multimedia explored: o

Edutube: EduTube is an educational video search platform launched in April 2008. Our aim
is to organize the best free online educational videos, and make them easy for you to find, watch and download. Because sites such as YouTube are often blocked, each video also has a download link displayed on the right of each video, as shown below. A Screenshot: http://www.edutube.org/

Teacher tube: It is a site to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with

teachers teaching teachers. Their aim is to provide an online community for sharing instructional videos. They seek to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners. As well, it is a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill. The service is free for everyone. A Screenshot: http://www.teachertube.com/

edumedia Share: This site offers abundance of multimedia educational resources for
teachers. No language or subject limitation is there. One can add your own resources, tag, comment or even download ones colleagues ones to use in class. eduMedia-Share is an open, shared database of free educational resources. eduMedia Shares content is protected by a Creative Commons license that allows any non commercial usage of the available resources. A Screenshot: www.edumedia-share.com/

Merlot:

(Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching) MERLOT is a free and open online community of educational resources designed primarily for faculty, staff and students of higher education from around the world to share their learning materials and pedagogy. MERLOT is a leading edge, user-centered, online learning materials, prepared by registered members and a set of faculty development support services. MERLOT's strategic goal is to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning by increasing the quantity and quality of peer reviewed online learning materials that can be easily included into faculty designed courses.

A Screenshot: http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm

Open Culture (All-in-One site for educational and cultural Purposes): This site
is one of the best free cultural & educational media on the web. We may call it ones guide to FREE educational media. Find thousands of free online courses, audio books, eBooks, language lessons, movies & more here. This site can play a wonderful role in strengthening the classroom transaction.

A Screenshot: http://www.openculture.com/

Globe (Global Learning Objects Brokered Exchange): Organizations from around

the world have formed a global alliance to make shared online learning resources available to educators and students around the world. The Global Learning Objects Brokered Exchange (GLOBE) alliance was established among the following founding members: the ARIADNE Foundation in Europe, Education Services Australia, LORNET in Canada, Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online

Teaching (MERLOT) in the USA, and National Institute of Multimedia Education (NIME) in Japan. These organizations have committed to work collaboratively on a shared vision of everywhere access to quality educational content. Since its inception, GLOBE has attracted the interest of other organizations with similar goals. Links of many official educational websites of the renowned global universities / countries are linked here for the purpose of academic resources. A Screenshot: http://www.globe-info.org/

5. Open Encyclopedia:
INTRODUCTION: Open Encyclopedia is a reference work available on the web freely for the public use that contains information on all branches of knowledge or treats comprehensively a specified branch of knowledge, usually in articles arranged in alphabetical order of subjects (or with search engines) either in a single list or within each of several large subsections. Most commonly Open Encyclopedia explored: o

Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia: Wikipedia is a free web based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia, project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 15 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet. A Screenshot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Open Site.Org (The Free Encyclopedia): Open-Site is an internet community project

which aims to build a free, trusted, and peer-reviewed encyclopedia. The Open Site Encyclopedia Project aims to be the most comprehensive, informational, volunteer-powered web-site on the Internet. Its purpose is to create, into an organized structure, content of different types, from different topics, and to share it back to the Internet community. A Screeshot: http://open-site.org/

6. Open Dictionary:
INTRODUCTION: Open Dictionary is an online dictionary which allows the users to
use them free of cost online. One access and copy their resources at any academic platform without paying for them. o

Open Dictionary:

It is a collaborative project to produce a freely accessible multilingual dictionary in every language, with meanings, etymologies and pronunciations.

A Screenshot: http://open-dictionary.com/

o Macmillan Open Dictionary: Macmillan is an internationally recognized publisher of encyclopedias, dictionaries and reference works. MacmillanDictionary.com offers unique treatment of metaphor, showing how many ordinary familiar words and phrases have metaphorical. MacmillanDictionary.com is the perfect free online dictionary - a one-stop reference for English speakers around the world.

A Screenshot: http://www.macmillandictionary.com/open-dictionary/

o Merriam-Websters Open Dictionary: At Merriam-Webster's Open Dictionary one can submit and share, and browse entries submitted by other members of the Merriam-Webster Online community. A Screenshot: http://www3.merriam-webster.com/opendictionary/

o Free Dictionary Online: This is probably the biggest open dictionary online. Free online dictionary There are also other language version dictionaries available at this site A Screenshot: http://gonaomi.com/

o Wiktionary: Wiktionary has grown beyond a standard dictionary and now includes a
thesaurus, a rhyme guide, phrase books, language statistics and extensive appendices. They aim to include not only the definition of a word, but also enough information to really understand it. Thus etymologies, pronunciations, sample quotations, synonyms, antonyms and translations are included.

A Screenshot: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page

o The free Dictionary Online: TheFreeDictionary.com now allows one to create ones own personal homepage by adding and removing, dragging and dropping, and "using or losing" existing content windows. In addition, one can add ones own bookmarks, weather information, horoscope, and RSS feeds from anywhere on the web.

A Screenshot: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/