UNESCO describes OER as “any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license” (2016). OER come in many shapes and forms. For instance, they might come as a full course with lesson plans, lecture notes, readings, assignments, videos, and tests, or they might be a single module, textbook, or syllabus. Regardless of the format of your OER, accessibility and open licensing are crucial.
While there is no definitive definition of open educational resources (OER), OER Commons’ definition is widely accepted,
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost. Unlike fixed, copyrighted resources, OER have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. In some cases, that means you can download a resource and share it with colleagues and students. In other cases, you may be able to download a resource, edit it in some way, and then re-post it as a remixed work. How do you know your options? OER often have a Creative Commons or GNU license to let you know how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared. (2015)
LBCC instructors use OER to make course materials more affordable and to engage students in creating more equitable learning materials through open pedagogy.
"Open Books Image" by Sami Kerzel is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Curious about how much you could save by switching to OER? Use the calculator above, courtesy of Ecampus Ontario.
Open Oregon OER FAQ
Your librarians have collaborated with others throughout the state to create this guide for faculty on all things OER!
Content for this guide was developed by Sami Kerzel and Michaela Willi Hooper
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.