Open Educational Resources
Open Educational Resources (OER) are not just a free download!
Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.
OER are materials that are free to access and use–but are also licensed to be modified, adapted, re-mixed, and re-used in new ways. Open is the key word (see the Open Definition). This is the feature that makes OERs so powerful for teaching and learning–they reduce costs for students, but also enable innovation, providing instructors the freedom to flexibly adapt and enrich the learning experience.
Common Examples
Often when we think of OER, we think open textbooks. These often look just like proprietary textbooks, have the option to be printed, but have the benefits of open licensing. Some open textbook examples:
- Introduction to Probability (open textbook at the Open Textbook Library)
- Project Management for Instructional Designers (open textbook created and hosted on PressBooks)
- OpenIntro Statistics (in use in select Statistics courses at UI)
- OpenStax Psychology (in use in select Psychology courses at UI)
Keep in mind OER do not need to be textbooks! OER can include open access articles, free websites, images, videos, audio, full courses, and more. One common strategy is to replace expensive textbooks with a series of high quality open resources. Open licenses also allow you to reformat materials, for example making a video reading the open textbook for your course.