What are Open Educational Resources?
Open educational resources are materials for teaching or learning that are either in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.
OER may include everything from full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, podcasts, government documents, white papers, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.
The "5 R's" of OER:
With openly licensed materials, you can do a combination of some or all of the following, depending on the license:
- Reuse: Use content in a variety of ways (on a website, in a video, in a handout, etc.)
- Remix: Combine the original or revised content with other material(s) to create something new (like a mashup)
- Revise: Adapt, update, modify, or alter the content (apply a filter, correct mistakes, translate into another language, etc.)
- Retain: Keep the original content (download, store, make copies, etc.)
- Redistribute: Share copies of the original content (send a file via email, upload document in a Canvas course, distribute handout copies in class, etc.)
