Below you will find an excerpt from Craig's response to reflexive task 2, where he discusses ways in which his understanding of OERs evolved throughout the project

My understanding of OERs has certainly changed from the pre-meeting task as at that point I believed they were reasonably formal in nature and I was unaware of the range of resources that were available. I previously believed they were mainly lecture notes, seminar work and assessment exercises and did not realise how diverse and creative they could be. I was also unaware of the depth of some of the resources and did not know that complete books and full modules could be so accessible.

The frequent use of video, audio, images and games in addition to textual resources has also been a surprise. This has influenced my understanding of openness as I now appreciate its application to teaching methods as well as content. The powerful label ‘edupunk’ illustrates the extent of this openness as OERs can address established educational barriers and put the student at the centre of their learning experience. The students’ promotion to creators of educational resources potentially creates a level of engagement that cannot be reached via their traditional role as resource-recipient.

My understanding of openness has also changed in the sense that I did not realise the importance they gave to public involvement in their use. I was unaware of the extent of the concept of ‘Teaching in Public’ and its promotion of teaching as a public good. I have followed this principle before and believe that the localization of these OERs will assist the development of this approach. It surely is important to increase awareness of the benefits of higher education at anytime, but its relevancy must be increased when the system is under such intense political and financial pressures. 

In summary I now see OERs as representing a vast amount of accessible resources that can be used without any copyright concerns from both lecturers and students. In addition to increasing opportunities, their openness for being remixed and localized creates a potentially dynamic process to the development of knowledge.