What are Open Educational Resources?
"Open Educational Resources (OER) are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. OER range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation."
[UNESCO]
Why Consider OER?
1. Textbook Prices
Textbook prices continue to rise at a significant rate over tuition and fees and more than three times faster than inflation. Open Educational Resources are free of cost.
source: Inclusiveaccess.org
2. First Day Access
Since open educational resources are free and available online, students will have access to the course materials on day one. It's no surprise that students who have access to the course materials do better in the course.
3. Custom Content
With OER, you can customize your textbook to meet the needs of your course, NOT the other way around. With their open licenses, you can remix and revise the content of OER to include the latest research, localize the context, or reorder the course content as you see fit.
4. Student and Institution Performance
Watson, Colvard and Park (2018) found that the adoption of open educational resources in courses improve end-of-course grades and decrease DFW (D, F, and Withdrawal letter grades) rates for all students. This improvement is even greater for Pell Grant recipients.
Where Do OER Come From?
OER are authored by experts in their field, usually affiliated with a college or university, not unlike conventional textbooks. OER creators might be frustrated by the limitations of traditional texts, or philosophically align with the larger Open Education Movement. There are large repositories for OER and open education specialists make up a global network that collect, curate, preserve, and share these resources.
When Did The Open Education Movement Begin?
The first repository of free educational resources, MERLOT, was created in 1997 as part of a 1994 National Science Foundation grant led by James Spohrer. in 2001, Lawrence Lessig and others founded Creative Commons (CC), which provides easy to use "some rights reserved" copyright licenses utilized by many OER today. CC licenses give OER creators the ability to grant certain permissions to others who would like to reuse, remix, and supplement their work. For more information about Creative Commons, visit their website At a 2002 UNESCO meeting of developing world nations in Paris, the term "open educational resources" was coined. Some institutions that got involved in the movement early include Rice University, University of California, MIT, and University of Massachusetts Amherst. Universities, national governments, and state/provincial governments around the world fund the adoption, remixing, and creation of OER.
The "5 Rs" of OER
David Wiley, a leader in the Open Education movement, defined the "open" meaning of "open educational resources" as the ability for everyone to engage in the "5 R activities" with a work:
1.Retain: make, own, and control a copy of the resource
2.Revise: edit, adapt, and modify one's copy of that resources
3.Remix: combine one's original or revised copy with other existing materials to create something new
4.Reuse: use one's original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly
5.Redistribute: share copies of one's original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others.
This material is an adaptation of Defining the "Open" in Open Content and Open Educational Resources, which was originally written by David Wiley and published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
5Rs Video
How Do I Get Started With OER?
If you're interested in learning more about OER and other no cost course materials, please contact Morgan Briles, OU's open educational resources librarian. Morgan can assist at all levels of familiarity of OER, whether you're just curious about options or are already an expert.
Some resources to get you started:
- OER Starter Kit by Abbey Elder: This starter kit has been created to provide instructors with an introduction to the use and creation of open educational resources (OER). This text is broken into five sections: Getting Started, Copyright, Finding OER, Teaching with OER, and Creating OER
- SPARC Guide to Open Education: Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) is a nonprofit active in all things open (data, education, access). Their landing page is an excellent resource for learning more about the different aspects of open education
- OER Faculty Toolkit from BC Campus: The Canadian province British Columbia is a leader in OER through their province wide program, BC Campus. They're created this resource for instructors interested in adopting or remixing open educational resources
All original content on this page is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. All linked content maintains its respective license.
