Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed materials that support teaching, learning, and research.
What are OERs?
They are materials anyone can use:
Access for free
Reuse
Revise
Remix
Redistribute
Note: These principles are known as the 5Rs of Open.
Types of OER:
Textbooks (like OpenStax or BCcampus)
Course modules
Lesson plans
Videos
Quizzes or problem sets
Interactive simulations
Full online courses (MOOCs)
Licensing:
OERs are usually released under Creative Commons (CC) licenses. Some common types:
CC BY – requires only attribution
CC BY-SA – attribution, plus share under the same license
CC0 – public domain, no restrictions
CC BY-NC-ND – more restrictive but still open (no commercial use, no changes
Where to find OERs:
oercommons.org
openstax.org
merlot.org
libretexts.org
open.bccampus.ca
ocw.mit.edu
OpenStax College is a nonprofit organization committed to improving student access to quality learning materials. Free textbooks are developed and peer-reviewed by educators to ensure they are readable, accurate, and meet the scope and sequence requirements of your course. Through partnerships with companies and foundations committed to reducing costs for students, OpenStax College is working to improve access to higher education for all. OpenStax College is an initiative of Rice University and is made possible through the generous support of several philanthropic foundations. https://openstax.org/subjects
Open College Textbooks are textbooks that have been funded, published, and licensed to be freely used, adapted, and distributed. These books have been reviewed by faculty from a variety of colleges and universities to assess their quality. These books can be downloaded for no cost or printed at a low cost. All textbooks are either used at multiple higher education institutions or affiliated with an institution, scholarly society, or professional organization. The library currently includes 788 textbooks, with more being added constantly. https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks
OpenStax provides textbooks across a wide range of disciplines:
Math: College Algebra, Calculus, Statistics
Science: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Anatomy & Physiology
Social Sciences: Psychology, Sociology, U.S. History
Humanities: Philosophy, Literature
Business & Economics: Economics, Business Ethics
College Success: Student skills and strategies