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Open Educational Resources

This guide provides information about Open Educational Resources, or OER, including how to find and evaluate them.

Introduction

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. 

Creative Commons Wiki

Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials that are freely available for instructors and students to use, adapt, share, and reuse. These resources contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by promoting accessible and inclusive education worldwide.

OER come in various formats and media, such as:

  • Textbooks
  • Lesson plans
  • Videos and animations
  • Interactive simulations
  • Quizzes and assignments
  • Software tools
  • Educational games and activities

These resources are available at no cost to users. While some are in the public domain and free from copyright restrictions, others are licensed under open licenses like Creative Commons (CC), which allow for flexible use, adaptation, and redistribution.

5 Rs of OER

The key feature of OER is their open licensing, which often uses Creative Commons (CC) licenses or other open licenses that permit users to:

  • Retain - make, own, and control a copy of the resource (e.g. download and keep your own copy)
  • Revise - edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource (e.g. translate into another language)
  • Remix - combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material to create something new (e.g. make a mashup)
  • Reuse - use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g. on a website, in a presentation, in a class)
  • Redistribute - share copies of your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others (e.g. post a copy online or give one to a friend)

(Source: Defining the "Open" in Open Content and Open Educational Resources was written by David Wiley and published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license at https://opencontent.org/definition)

Benefits of OER

There are many reasons instructors might want to use OER:

Free and Legal to Use, Improve and Share

  • Save time and energy by adapting or revising resources that have already been created.
  • Tailor educational resources to the specific content for your course.
  • Expand opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching and learning by allowing you to integrate and revise multiple educational resources.
  • Redefine "traditional" learning by incorporating multi-media or scenario-based education.
  • Go beyond the confines of "teaching to the book."

Network and Collaborate with Peers

  • Access educational resources that have already been "peer reviewed" by other experts in your field.
  • Review or annotation features and texts so other instructors have more in-depth knowledge of the resource and its quality quickly.
  • Make learning and teaching a team project using collaborative platforms.

Lower Educational Cost and Improve Access to Information

  • Reduce the cost of course materials, particularly textbooks so that all students have access and aren't as financially burdened.
  • Find and access information instantly on virtually any topic, on various devices.
  • Give learners the option of looking at course content openly before enrolling.
  • Reduce the load students bear, possibly increasing graduation and retention rates.

(Source: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library)