OER range from textbooks to entire courses and everything in between, including videos, podcasts, simulations, case studies, slides, and more. The key is that they can be widely distributed and adapted because they are at no cost to the user and are not subject to the usual copyright restrictions. This openness is most often indicated by a Creative Commons licence.
Open educational resources
Open educational resources (OER) are learning and teaching materials that are freely and openly available.
What are open educational resources (OER)?
What can be done with OER?
Benefits of OER
- Free (or low-cost if printed) and thus affordable for students
- Can be used and shared with an unlimited number of students without fear of copyright infringement
- Customizable and adaptable with few restrictions to meet student needs, teaching methods, curriculum, and recent developments
- Can be combined with other content and interactive or multimedia elements to provide richer teaching and learning opportunities
- Offer first-day, remote, and continued access since most OER are digital, do not require an access code, and do not expire
- Contribute to retention, success, and completion by easing students’ financial burden
- Have a positive impact on learning as much as, if not more than, commercial resources [1]
- Can be an opportunity for engagement and participation by co-creating knowledge with students in the form of renewable assignments rather than limiting their role to that of consumers of information
The adaptation of existing OER and the creation of new resources are also opportunities to make course materials more accessible, inclusive, and representative for learners. This kind of flexibility rarely exists in traditional textbooks. Because OER are not created to satisfy a commercial market, they can address topics and include perspectives that would otherwise be neglected.
Did you know?
In its Directive on the costs of educational materials to publicly assisted colleges and universities, the Ontario Ministry of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security recommends the use of OER to make postsecondary education more affordable for students.
Library OER support
Services available:
- assistance in locating existing OER to adopt or adapt
- guidance on copyright and licences to use, adapt, or create OER
- on-demand training for Pressbooks digital publishing platform
- deposit of OER in uO Research (depending on format)
- cataloguing of OER in eCampusOntario’s Open Library, MERLOT, OER Commons, and Pavillon for discoverability
For questions or to book a consultation: [email protected]
More about OER and affordable learning materials
References and attributions
[1] C. Hendricks et al., (2017), “The Adoption of an Open Textbook in a Large Physics Course: An Analysis of Cost, Outcomes, Use, and Perceptions,” The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 18(4), CC BY 4.0; R.S. Jhangiani et al., (2018), “As Good or Better than Commercial Textbooks: Students’ Perceptions and Outcomes from Using Open Digital and Open Print Textbooks,” The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 9(1); H.M. Ross et al., (2018), “Open Textbooks in an Introductory Sociology Course in Canada: Student Views and Completion Rates,” Open Praxis 10(4), CC BY 4.0; V. Clinton & S. Khan, (2019), “Efficacy of Open Textbook Adoption on Learning Performance and Course Withdrawal Rates: A Meta-Analysis,” AERA Open, CC BY-NC 4.0.
Images (Pixabay License) :
Header by Bilal Muljono
Open licences and copyright by Sergei Tokmakov, Esq.
Finding OER by Lucas Wendt
Creating OER by Alexas_Fotos
Evaluating an OER by Alexandra_Koch
Library course reserves by ElasticComputeFarm
Pressbooks and H5P by StockSnap
Library OER grant by 3D Animation Production Company
Open education week by PublicDomainPictures
Unless otherwise noted, the content on this page is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.