OER Basics

Welcome to this libguide focused on Open Education Resources (OER). This is a beginners guide for faculty, staff, students and community members to get you started with everything you have ever wanted to know about OER.

In this guide you will find pages to help you:

Find/evaluate OER,

Create OER,

Find Creative Commons information and

Obtain help if you need it/make an appointment with a librarian

What is OER?

• Open Educational Resources (OER) are various materials published under an open license that can be reused, remixed and edited and shared freely. OER are typically connected as textbooks but are not limited to those. OER can be handouts, workbooks, videos really anything that can be educational and opened to others to change and use in their own work moving forward. OER is define by UNESCO as "teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions." The rule of the 5 R's typically relates to OER development.

The 5 R's of OER from David Wiley’s 5R Framework.

The 5 R's of OER are attributes which can be found in most Open Educational Resources. They are: 

Retain
the right to make, own, and control copies of the content
Reuse
the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
Revise
the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
Remix
the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
Redistribute
the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

What OER is not

• OER is often confused with Open Access materials or (OA). These are two separate types of free resources. OA is free resources that can be used but not changed or edited in any way. Although free resources should always be sought OER can be more impactful because it can be tailored to meet equity needs, and for specific students or classes.