06: Open Educational Resources (OER)

Getting Started with Open Educational Resources (OER): A Practical Guide for Tanzanian Teachers

Open Educational Resources (OER) give teachers the freedom to access high-quality learning materials, adapt them for their classrooms, and share with colleagues—all at no cost. Instead of being limited by expensive textbooks or outdated materials, OER helps you create lessons that match your learners’ needs, reflect Tanzanian contexts, and support more active, engaging teaching.

Below are three simple ways you can begin using OER in your teaching, followed by a short activity to turn theory into practice.

1. Bringing OER Into Your Everyday Teaching

OER can fit naturally into lesson planning. You can use them to enrich your teaching or replace materials you currently struggle to access.

• Replace costly or outdated textbooks: Access open textbooks or learning modules that match local syllabus topics.
• Create interactive lessons: Use open videos, animations, simulations, or quizzes to help students understand difficult concepts more easily.
• Localise your teaching: Adapt wording, examples, images, or contexts so your materials reflect Tanzanian culture, curriculum, and classroom realities.

Example: A Civics teacher preparing a lesson on human rights can use an open textbook chapter, add locally relevant case studies, and include a short video clip from an open platform to make the lesson richer and more relatable for students.

2. Creating Digital Teaching Materials With OER

Many teachers assume digital content requires advanced design skills, but OER makes the process simple. You can combine openly licensed resources to create professional, engaging teaching materials.

• Slides and presentation decks using open images, diagrams, and text.
• Lesson plans and worksheets adapted from open courseware or teacher-created OER.
• Multimedia lessons that bring together videos, audio explanations, quizzes, or infographics.

Example: A Biology teacher creating a lesson on photosynthesis might combine an open-access animation, a free diagram of leaf structure, and a quiz from an OER science repository to form a complete, student-friendly lesson ready for class or online.

3. Sharing Your OER Creations Back With the Community

One of the biggest strengths of OER is the cycle of sharing. When teachers create and share new resources, the entire education community grows stronger.

• Upload your adapted lessons to platforms like OER Commons or your institution’s repository.
• Add a Creative Commons licence (e.g., CC BY) so others know how they may reuse, remix, or improve your work.
• Provide simple documentation—how you adapted the resource, why it worked well, and any tips for use—so others can benefit.

Benefit: Sharing OER helps other Tanzanian teachers access quality materials and supports a culture of collaboration across regions and schools.