Participants of the meeting were enthusiastic about the potential of such resources and
formally expressed ‘their wish to develop together a universal educational resource
available for the whole of humanity … they hope that this open resource for the future
mobilizes the whole of the worldwide community of educators’ (UNESCO, 2002).
As the OER movement has grown, other efforts have been made to define and
describe the term and the concept. Definitions have moved from an initial description of the materials to include the tools needed to support OER, and eventually to a
philosophy.
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the donor that has been the primary
champion in the OER movement, defines OER as: