Open Educational Resources
Service Overview
Our Open Educational Resources (OER) team works to increase awareness and adoption of open educational resources to reduce course material costs for students.
"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."
What We Offer
Open Educational Resources (OER) offer a range of benefits that make them an excellent alternative to traditional course instruction materials. As textbook prices continue to rise, OER removes the financial burden for students by providing a cost-free solution. Because they are freely available online, students can access course materials on the first day of class, which is linked to better academic performance. Instructors also benefit by being able to customize textbook content to fit their course needs, not the other way around! With their open licenses, instructors can remix and revise the content of OER to include the latest research, localize the context, or reorder the course content. 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.
- Open Educational Resources are free!
- Students can access course materials from day one.
- Open licensing means instructors are free to customize course content.
- Research shows OER improves student and institutional performance.
- Print copies can be ordered at cost from OER publishers.
Get Started
Schedule a Consultation
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.
Who Can Use This Service
Open Educational Resources are free and available to the public. We are happy to assist all OU instructors in implementing OER for their course materials.
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've created this resource for instructors interested in adopting or remixing open educational resources.
For assistance with finding OER, visit our Open Education Resources LibGuide or contact Morgan Briles.
Contact Information
FAQs
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.
Most OER are written by academics and experts in their field, like the textbooks from the big publishers. Just like traditional textbooks, some will meet your pedagogical needs while others will not. The Open Textbook Library includes reviews from faculty with many of their textbooks on their site. See an example from OU author Chad Davis.
Funding to support the creation of OER typically comes from academic institutions, philanthropic organizations, and, increasingly, state and federal governments; however, some are created solely out of goodwill. OU Libraries awards modest grants to instructors who adopt OER, reducing what students spend on course materials via the Alternative Textbook Grant.
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.
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:
- Retain: make, own, and control a copy of the resource
- Revise: edit, adapt, and modify one's copy of those resources
- Remix: combine one's original or revised copy with other existing materials to create something new
- Reuse: use one's original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly
- 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.