What is OER?
Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. Source: https://hewlett.org/strategy/open-educational-resources/
Why use OER?
According to SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition):
- Textbook costs should not be a barrier to education.
- Students learn more when they have access to quality materials.
- Technology holds boundless potential to improve teaching and learning.
- Better education means a better future.
How do I know if a resource is an OER?
The key distinguishing characteristic of OER is its intellectual property license and the freedoms the license grants to others to share and adapt it. If a lesson plan or activity is not clearly tagged or marked as being in the public domain or having an open license, it is not OER.
