The OER - A Teaching Learning Tool in the times of COVID-19 in India

All the sectors of human life, including education, are affected due to COVID-19. This pandemic has forced for development of a system where teachers and students have to maintain social distance and continue their education process. Thus, in this context, distance education in place of face-to-face mode with specific innovations is the best mode to reach adult learners, and this mode also advocates lifelong learning for all stages. The Open Educational Resources (OERs) are also an innovation which is in practice for a long time now in education. These resources are exclusively at use in higher education in distance mode because the stakeholders i.e. teachers and students both are competent to develop and use the OERs. The learners at higher stage also have devices that facilitate access and make the material available to them easily. This situation at the school level, which is predominantly, a face-to-face mode is quite contrary to higher education. An overview indicates that the teachers and students are not much competent to develop such programmes; moreover, students at this stage do not have devices readily available to access the digitised material. In such cases, there is a considerable obligation on the part of the State, Central Government and NGOs to development of content in OER useful for teachers and students and provide suitable devices for students for the use of OERs during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many efforts are being made by various government and non-government agencies in India, and this paper attempts to dive at the school level to examine available materials by selecting a few websites and online resources. These OERs are available in different formats in curricular and co-curricular areas, which different stakeholders can access from different devices. There is a considerable amount of educational material available on paid services, but based on the OER philosophy present article attempts to examine only openly available digital material in the public domain. The Analysis indicates that individuals are making isolated efforts with few unorganised governments and non-government organisations efforts. However, the study indicates that a collaborative effort on a common platform for all kinds of stakeholders is required