Introduction to OER

“OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.” (William and Flora Hewlett Foundation)

An essential component of OER is the user's active engagement with materials. This process involves: 

• using and adapting others’ materials for your own use;
• sharing back modifications to or comments about others’ materials so that future users can benefit;
• and, sharing materials that you have created, either individually or in groups with other teachers and/or learners (Why OER? by Rice University, CC AT).

The Wide Plethora of OER

There is huge range of different types of OER available online. Some of the most common OER currently available include:

Courses

• Example: MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of MIT course content providing access to entire courses, for example, this How to Create Video Games course available under a CC BY-NC-SA  licence

Modules

• Example: The eCampus Ontario initiative has funded creation of numerous open online modules, such as these Student to Scholar Modules developed collaboratively by Western University, the University of Toronto, and Queen's University to help graduate students in the social sciences develop academic literacies 

Textbooks

• Example: BC Open Textbooks offers a collection of textbooks for "Top 40" subject areas such as this Concepts of Biology textbook available under a CC BY licence

Learning Objects

• Example: PhET Interactive Simulations is a repository of open interactive, research-informed simulations for science and mathematics, such as this Acid-Base Solutions activity available for downloading or embedding under a CC BY licence

Videos

• Example: The Youtube Video Editor allows for the adaptation and/or remixing of CC-licenced videos

​Photos

• Example: Flickr Creative Commons searches can be conducted to locate and download photos that are CC-licenced

Journals

• Example: ​The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)  is an online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.

Is licensing really the most important question for OER? by opensource.com (CC BY-SA)