Defining OER

What Are Open Educational Resources?

"OERs" stands for Open Educational Resources, which are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost, and without needing to ask permission. OER includes a wide variety of teaching and learning materials including: textbooks in online and print formats, interactive learning activities, videos, etc.

Unlike copyrighted resources, OER has been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. That means you can download the resource and share it with colleagues and students. In most cases, you can also edit it in some way, and then re-post the remixed work. How do you know your options? OER often has a Creative Commons license that tells you how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared. (More definitions of OER. Links to an external site.)

OER Overview

This 2-minute 13-second video by the University of Houston Libraries introduces Open Educational Resources (OER)—free, openly licensed teaching materials that can be used, adapted, and shared. You'll learn about the 5 Rs—Reuse, Retain, Revise, Remix, and Redistribute—that define how OER can be customized to fit different learning needs.

Optional ASCCC OERI Webinar

OER Basics Links to an external site.: Are you new to OER? This webinar will provide an introduction to what OER is, what open licenses allow you to do, places to start exploring OER, and compelling reasons to consider adopting OER.

Attributions