Open educational resources: an analysis of the structure of OER in the repositories of brazilian federal higher education institutions

Abstract

Open Education, aligned with the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 4, aims to democratize education by promoting inclusive, high-quality educational resources. Open educational resources (OER), defined by UNESCO as learning materials available in the public domain or under open licenses, follow the principles of the 4Rs: Reuse, Revise, Remix, and Redistribute. In this context, institutional repositories (IRs) are essential for providing open access to materials that support teaching and research. Using an exploratory methodology of descriptive nature and a qualitative-quantitative approach, Brazilian institutions were mapped through the e-MEC Register, and 10 IRs containing "learning objects" were selected from the OpenDOAR Directory. The available resources in each IR were analyzed to identify their structure, means of distribution, and contacts with environment administrators. The analysis revealed that the concept of OER is not clearly understood by institutions, highlighting the need to consult IR managers directly to understand their perceptions. A questionnaire was developed to understand managers’ perspectives on the structure, definition, functionalities, and importance of making OER available. It was found that many materials do not meet OER criteria due to inadequate formats and a lack of institutional support and that, although familiar with OER, managers noted a lack of guidelines to ensure the inclusion and maintenance of these resources. The conclusion is that, in addition to integrating OER into repositories, it is necessary to implement policies that ensure their sustainability, thereby strengthening the democratization of knowledge.