A key aspect promoted and researched by the Chair is Open Educational Resources (OER). OER was defined by UNESCO (2019) at the General Conference meeting in Paris in November 2019 as "learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others".

The North-West University has committed itself to the promotion, use and creation of OER through the OER Declaration which was approved by the NWU’s Senate in March 2018. Furthermore, the North-West University is also a partner with the OERu.

Workshops and webinars

24 June 2021 16:00-17:00 Introduction to OER and open pedagogy (Jako Olivier)

6 July 2021 10:00-11:30 Analyzing open practices from a social justice perspective (Maha Bali, The American University in Cairo, Egypt)

8 July 2021 14:00-15:30 Open licensing webinar: “Grappling with Open” (Paul West, Creative Commons South Africa)
Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPvv4Bu_6_s

18 August 2021 11:00-12:00 Ubuntu, Student Advocacy and Professional Development: Becoming an Open Education Influencer (BOEI) (Gino Fransman, Nelson Mandela University)

24 August 2021 14:00-15:30 Open textbooks (Glenda Cox, Michelle Willmers & Bianca Masuku, University of Cape Town)
Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTWqGc_v3N0

9 September 2021 15:00-16:30 Open source authoring tools to create open educational resources (Tel Amiel, University of Brasília, Brazil)
Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbS13jdCO7I

5 October 2021 14:00-15:30 OER and quality frameworks related to the UNESCO OER recommendation (Ebba Ossiannilsson, ICDE, Sweden)
Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q08S6Tu2V60

26 October 2021 16:00-17:30 Introduction to Open Educational Resources Research using the COUPE (cost, outcomes, use, perceptions, and engagement) Framework (Virginia Clinton-Lisell, University of North Dakota, USA)
Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_AjmKOzIbSBaKFp5-EUqEmw

28 March 2023 10:00 - 12:30 Emotions and self-directed learning (Egon Werlen, Switzerland)

30 March 2023 10:00 - 12:30 Metacognitive self-reflection on the correctness of open-ended questions (Egon Werlen, Switzerland)

The following repositories list various OER:

Merlot - http://www.merlot.org/
OER Commons- http://www.oercommons.org/
AMSER- http://amser.org/
Open Course Library - http://opencourselibrary.org/
The Orange Grove - http://florida.theorangegrove.org/og/home.do
Skills Commons - http://www.skillscommons.org/
Curriki - http://www.curriki.org/
Open Stax CNX - http://cnx.org/
Open Learning Initiative - http://oli.cmu.edu/
Teaching Commons - http://teachingcommons.us/
Wikiversity - http://en.wikiversity.org/
HippoCampus - http://www.hippocampus.org/
Open Washington - http://www.openwa.org/
SOL*R - http://solr.bccampus.ca/wp/
Slidewiki - https://slidewiki.org/