"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" -- The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Examples of OER
Types of OER include (but are not limited to) textbooks, journal articles, syllabi, podcasts, lesson plans, learning modules, lab experiments, simulations, course videos, discussion prompts, assignments, assessments, library guides, and course design templates. In short, 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
OER for Instructors
Instructors use OER in their classes: — showing YouTube videos, using worksheets created and shared by other instructors, and using online simulations as learning activities. Instructors can also create and share syllabi, lesson plans, and even full textbooks for their courses. They can collaborate with instructors at their own institutions, or other institutions around the world. They can access and remix existing OER and republish them to share with others.
Source: "Understanding OER." by SUNY OER Services, OER Community Course is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Adapted from the Open Educational Resources (OER): Tools for Affordable Learning, Washington State University LibGuide.
"The terms 'Open Content' and 'Open Educational Resources' describe any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is described by other terms like 'Open Source') that is either in the public domain or licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the following 5R activities":
This material is based on original writing by David Wiley, which was published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0. license at http://opencontent.org/definition/.
Characteristics of a good OER
Adpated from: The Open University. OpenLearn. Creating open educational resources. What makes a good OER?
Using OER at first can be daunting because there are so many resources that you can use. If you are considering incorporating open resources into your module, here are some tips on building or adding OER to your classes.
Step 1 :
Set aside time
Step 2 :
Check if someone else has created a similar, complete OER course or textbook.
Step 3 :
Take a closer look at your learning objectives.
Step 4 :
Search several OER repositories to see what content is available.
Step 5 :
Look for library materials like e-books, articles and streaming videos to fill in gaps.
Step 6 :
Not finding what you’re looking for? Ask your librarian.
Step 7 :
Consider creating and sharing your own OER.
Adapted from "OER - Open Educational Resources: Adopt" by University of Pittsburgh Library System.
"Students spend a lot of money on textbooks. Alternatives to the expensive textbooks that come from commercial publishers are open educational resources, or OER. But, are these free resources as effective or of the same quality as textbooks? The research says yes." This video summarizes the available research synthesized in Hilton, J. (2016) Open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions. Education Tech Research and Development, 64(4), 573 - 590.
To access the original research, go to https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11423-016-9434-9.
Source: "Open educational resources and college textbook choices: a review of research on efficacy and perceptions by Research Shots is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0.