Open Educational Resources: What are OERs

"Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost, and without needing to ask permission. Unlike copyrighted resources, OER have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights." - OER Commons

OERs include a wide range of education materials including etextbooks, lecture notes, assessment materials and online courses. OERs are commonly made available under one of the Creative Commons licences, which allow for varying degrees of re-use and adaptation, provided that the original source is acknowledged.

Advantages

OER and Open Access Resources:

• Do not have licence restrictions (e.g. 1 user or 3 user licences or etextbook models that require student numbers and can be costly)
• Are free for academics and libraries to use.
• More stable and less likely to have access withdrawn. 

Considerations: 

Important to engage in critical evaluation:

Unlike traditionally published materials—where publishers typically oversee proofreading and editing to maintain high standards—OERs place more responsibility on the user. It’s up to the selector to ensure the resource is accurate, reliable, and aligned with teaching and learning objectives. See our Evaluating OER page.

Creative Commons licenses give content creators the option to license their works for others to use for free. This means you can use the content, provided you abide by the license agreement.

The six CC license types

• CC BY:  Reuse as you wish (you can distribute, remix, adapt and build upon the medium in any format). You must give credit to the creator.
• CC BY-SA: Reuse as you wish and you must give credit to the creator. If you make any modifications, you must also license this with CC BY-SA
• CC BY-NC:  You can reuse as you wish, but only for noncommercial purposes.You must give credit to the creator. 
• CC BY-NC-SA: You can reuse as you wish, but only for noncommercial purposes. You must give credit to the creator. If you make any modifications, you must also license this with CC BY-NC-SA
• CC BY-ND: You can copy and distribute, but you cannot adapt the material. You must give credit to the creator.
• CC BY-NC-ND: You can copy and distribute, but you cannot adapt the material or use it for commercial purposes. You must give credit to the creator.

Aside from these six licenses, content creators can also designate their content with a CC0 - this is when they have given up the copyright to the content, allowing it to be reused with no conditions attached.

"The terms “open content” and “open educational resources” describe any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is described by other terms like “open source”) that is either (1) in the public domain or (2) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:

1. Retain – make, own, and control a copy of the resource (e.g., download and keep your own copy)

2. Revise – edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource (e.g., translate into another language)

3. Remix – combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material to create something new (e.g., make a mashup)

4. Reuse – use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g., on a website, in a presentation, in a class)

5. Redistribute – share copies of your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others (e.g., post a copy online or give one to a friend)"

David Wiley, the 5R's

Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Access (OA) share similarities but are not identical.

Open Access typically refers to scholarly articles and journals that are freely and permanently available online. While these materials can be reused, there is usually limited flexibility for modification.

In contrast, OER encompasses a broader range of materials specifically designed for teaching and learning, such as textbooks and course-related resources. These resources actively support remixing, adapting, and redistributing, offering greater freedom for educators and learners to tailor content to their needs.

This Guide also features Open Access Resources as well.