Library Home: Open Access(OA) & OER: What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are shared under an intellectual property license that enables others to use, revise, and share them freely.

Creative Commons Licenses

Open Educational Resources (OER)

OER Commons definition( less strict than David Wiley or Cable Green definitions)
"Open Educational Resources are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse, without charge. OER often have a Creative Commons or GNU license that state specifically how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared."

"Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning objects (tutorials, syllabi, worksheets, interactive experiences, lesson plans, blogs, etc.) shared under an intellectual property license that enables others to reuse, revise, remix, retain, and redistribute them" (Wiley, 2014).

Ideally, Open Educational resources are:

An object used for teaching and learning
Shared under a license that enables others to reuse, revise, remix, retain, and redistribute
Shared in a format and with enough context for others to reasonably alter the object.

Since some states have invested in education, they have funded the creation of OER textbooks, which the rest of us depend on for providing Free Textbooks. The goal is to use open resources, get comfortable, then start creating and sharing your own open works.

All together - this will Save Students $1 Billion

The textbooks are in repositories so that they remain available. When an updated version is available, a link from old material is provided to updated material. It is essential to properly attribute and cite which work you are using for your class, so students use and cite the proper edition.