OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES (OER)

Created Feb. 7, 2024 by Judith Strawderman

OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES (OER)

A FACT SHEET FOR OER IN ADULT EDUCATION

DEFINITION OF OER?

OER are types of materials used in the education setting that are found in the public domain or are available with an open license. The materials can be shared, reused, and edited within the permissions of the license.

WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF OER?

OER are not just printed lesson plans but can also include:

· Activities

· Full courses

· Online Textbooks

· Simulations and Interactive lessons

WHY USE OER IN ADULT EDUCATION?

· Adult education serves students of varied learning styles, skills and backgrounds. By using OER, students have many more resources that can be adapted to their skills and needs AND increase their technology skills for future education and careers. It also increases collaboration between students and collaboration between teachers, saves money, and can create lifelong learning communities among the students.

THE 5Rs FRAMEWORK

The 5Rs are a framework developed by David Whiley to increase knowledge and understanding of what is considered to be an OER.

The 5Rs are:

· Retain-the right to, make copies, and control the use of the copies

· Reuse-the right to use the original copies as presented.

· Revise-the right to alter, adapt, modify the content

· Remix-the right to combine contents together to create new content

· Redistribute-the right to make copies and share the copies of original content, revisions, and remixes of the content.

WHERE CAN OER BE FOUND?

OER can be found using any search engine or on the OER Research Hub at http://oerhub.net/. The following list are a partial list of OER:

OER commons

https://www.oercommons.org/