Connexions - Sharing Knowledge and Building Communities. USQ OpenCourseWare. OER@AVU. Europe > Welcome. Open CourseWare and OERs. ON THIS PAGE:Overview...COL's OER initiatives...Searching for Open Educational Resources... Overview The term ‘Open Educational Resources’ (OER) was first adopted at UNESCO’s 2002 Forum on the Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. COL has adopted the widest definition of Open Educational Resources (OER) as ‘materials offered freely and openly to use and adapt for teaching, learning, development and research’. While OER are mainly shareable in digital formats (both online and via offline formats such as DVD or CD-ROM), COL sees OER not just synonymous with online resources, online learning or e-learning, and within the development context COL is working, OER can also be in printable formats.
OER can be deposited (by donation) by a variety of sources to one or more of the many OER repositories, which are mainly online. Both terms have been evolving in their definitions since 2002. COL's OER initiatives. English — Open Yale Courses. Online Video Lectures and Course Materials — Open Yale Courses. Oxford University Mathematics OpenCourseWare. Capilano University OpenCourseWare — Capilano University Open Course Ware. Utah State OpenCourseWare. Courses: UC Irvine, OpenCourseWare. Water is the economic, social, and physical lifeblood of humanity, providing the bases for agriculture, industry, transportation, energy production, and life itself. Despite its importance, alarming signs suggest that there are looming threats to this vital resource. The World Resources Institute contends that the world's thirst for water is likely to become one of the most pressing issues this century due to population growth, drought, and climate change.
The World Bank reports that many developing nations already face a crisis from intensive irrigation, urbanization, diminishing supplies, and deteriorating infrastructure; and, UNESCO predicts as many as 7 billion people in half the world’s countries will face shortages of potable water by 2050. The purpose of this course is to illuminate how water is a political, social, economic, and environmental challenge and to suggest ways we might manage it better and more equitably. The UMass Boston OpenCourseWare — University of Massachusetts Boston.