LibGuides: Open Educational Resources (OER): What are Open Educational Resources?

What are Open Educational Resources?

Open Educational Resources (OER) "are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open education resources include, full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge." --The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

OER allow users to:

Retain -- users have the right to make, archive, and own copies of the content
Reuse -- content can be reused in its unaltered form
Revise -- content can be adapted, adjusted, modified, and altered
Remix -- original or revised content can be combined with other content to create something new
Redistribute -- copies of the content can be shared with others in its original, revised or remixed form.

Read more about OER:

OER Starter Kit
This starter kit has been created to provide instructors with an introduction to the use and creation of open educational resources (OER). The text is broken into five sections: Getting Started, Copyright, Finding OER, Teaching with OER, and Creating OER. Although some chapters contain more advanced content, the starter kit is primarily intended for users who are entirely new to Open Education. [Version 1.1. Revised September 5th, 2019.]
JISC-Open Educational Resources
An explanatory guide on Open Educational Resources including myths, evaluation, and learning and teaching considerations.
OER Tutorial-Algonquin College
A detailed tutorial covering OER, copyright, and Creative Commons licensing from Algonquin College in Ottawa, Canada.
An Open Education Reader
A collection of essays on open education compiled by David Wiley. Dr. Wiley, an expert in the field of open education, is the Chief Academic Officer of Lumen Learning and adjunct faculty at BYU.
Open Education Handbook
This Wikibook on Open Education continues to evolve as the community contributes to it. The resource provides information on terminology, software, case studies, and key issues in open education.
Writing an Open Textbook: Is it Worth It?
Tony Bates, an expert in open and distance education chronicles his experience in creating an open textbook and determines that it was well worth the effort.

Faculty Showcase

California Open Online Library Faculty Showcase
To learn more about how other faculty members in the three California higher education systems are incorporating open resources into their courses, select one of the subject selections from the "Faculty Showcase" tab on the Cool4Ed homepage.

Recorded Webinars

Open Café Express: Discovering Open Textbooks | Nov. 19, 2020
This workshop is for those who are interested in alternatives to the traditional textbook. Open textbooks can increase access to higher education by eliminating student costs and give faculty direct control over their instructional resources. If you’re interested in Open Textbooks or other types of Open Educational Resources (OER), but aren’t sure where or how to find them then this is the workshop for you. Tune in for a quick overview of Open Textbook repositories and learn how to find the most relevant instructional resources for your course. Recorded Nov. 19, 2020

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Meet your AL$ Librarian

What are Open Educational Resources?

Faculty Showcase

Recorded Webinars

License info