You may have heard the term “OER,” and wondered – “I know it stands for ‘Open Educational Resources,’ but what exactly does that mean?” This is a great question, so let’s take a moment to define the key terms.
OER refers to any educational content that is free, and openly-licensed. That’s right, “free” – as in, no cost to students, no exorbitant textbook prices, and no worries about how to afford basic course texts.
This aspect of OER is a key component, and has made these resources increasingly popular as an alternative to high textbook costs. It’s also behind the recent state funding of OER development at SUNY and CUNY, including the integration of “ZTC,” or Zero-Textbook Cost courses, and even a possible “Z-Degree” (an entire degree program with no course text costs!).
Let’s also take a look at the second part of the definition, “openly-licensed.” This phrase refers to the legal license of an educational resource, and how available it is for public use. Under traditional copyright, there are many restrictions – but by adding a Creative Commons license to their work, an author/creator can choose to allow others to share, modify, revise, and otherwise use the content.
The Takeaway: When something is being described as “open,” it means that the license allows a user rights beyond the original copyright.
Can I see an example of OER?
Sure! It’s great to have some concrete examples. Just keep in mind that as long as the materials are free and openly-licensed, they would be under the umbrella of OER. This means that the format could “range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation,” and still be considered an Open Educational Resource.
Here are some links to free, openly-licensed textbooks, courses, images, and audio.
News from the City Tech Library
