OER: 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."  

From 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.

Open Textbooks have been released with an open license (usually a Creative Commons license) which allows them to be copied, shared and revised.

OER Repositories contain more than just open textbooks. They also have other digital learning materials such as:

• full courses
• modules
• syllabi
• lectures
• homework assignments
• quizzes
• lab activities
• games
• simulations