What is OER?

Introduction to Open Educational Resources 

Please watch this short video for a general introduction to OER.

 

Defining OER

Open Educational Resources (OERs) are ANY type of educational materials in the public domain or introduced with an open license.

The nature of these OPEN materials means anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt, or re-share.

OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation.      

There are various definitions of OER but all have the same licensing components. Educational materials which use a Creative Commons license or which exist in the public domain and are free of copyright restrictions are open educational resources.

The 5 R's

OERs are licensed to give users free and perpetual permission to engage in what are known as the 5R activities:

  1. Retain - the right to make, own, and control copies of the content 
  2. Reuse - the right to use the content in a wide range of ways 
  3. Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself 
  4. Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new 
  5. Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others

Attributions: 

 

"What is OER?." by The Council of Chief State School Officers. is licensed under CC BY 4.0

"What are Open Educational Resources? Links to an external site." by UNESCO Links to an external site.

5R's: This material is based on original writing by David Wiley, which was published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. license at http://opencontent.org/definition.