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Educational resources developed in an open environment can be vetted and improved by a broad community of educators, resulting in materials that represent what the educational community sees as most valuable. By providing educators with new access to educational material, open resources have the potential to spur pedagogical innovation, introducing new alternatives for effective teaching. OER have the potential to expose students and instructors to the long tail of content, most of which never finds its way into widespread educational use. Moreover, learning resources that can be modified and reused promote collaboration and participation two key elements of a Web 2.0 approach to teaching and learning.

The resources required to develop high-quality learning materials and activities for a full complement of courses can be prohibitive for many institutions and instructors. By distributing the costs over a larger number of users, OER brings a greater range of tools within reach of more users. OER can also lower the costs for students to obtain educational content. OER and online or hybrid learning are natural partners in efforts that take advantage of and prompt developments in educational technology that facilitate new media, new formats, and new means of distribution.

EDUCAUSE (2010), “7 Things you should know about…open Educational resources“