When to use OER?

Use Open Educational Resources (OER) when you need to reduce student costs, customize learning materials, improve accessibility and inclusivity, ensure access to up-to-date content, or foster collaboration in any educational setting, from K-12 to higher ed, by adapting, remixing, and sharing high-quality, free-to-use educational content. OER is ideal for creating personalized, relevant, and equitable learning experiences that traditional, costly textbooks often can't provide.

What qualifies as OER?

Definition of Open Educational Resources (OER)

OER can include textbooks, course materials and full courses, modules, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge. An open source (or open) textbook is a textbook which is OER.

What are the benefits of using OER?

Advantages of using OERs include:

• expanded access to learning. Students anywhere in the world can access OERs at any time, and they can access the material repeatedly.
• scalability. OERs are easy to distribute widely with little or no cost.
• modify course resources to better align with learning outcomes.

Do I need OER?

Benefits for Students

OER provide students with day-one access to free course materials, and research reviewed by the Open Education Group shows that most students perform as well or better using OER course materials compared with students using traditional textbooks.

Can I use OER for commercial purposes?

This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered.

An Introduction to OER

What are the 4 conditions of fair use?

The four factors of fair use in U.S. copyright law are: (1) the purpose and character of the use (e.g., transformative, educational vs. commercial), (2) the nature of the copyrighted work (factual vs. creative), (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used, and (4) the effect of the use on the potential market for the original work, with courts weighing these factors case-by-case. 

Which OER license has the least restrictions?

Aspects of Creative Commons licenses can be combined in different ways that allow creators to retain more or less control over their creation. There are six types of licenses available and they are listed with basic explanations here. This license is the least restrictive option, outside of the public domain.

What are the limitations of OER?

Limitation of Open Educational Resources

Creative commons licences must therefore be popularised amongst teachers and those creating educational content. Production, and even modification of the existing OER does not come free; it requires certain hardware, software, organisational, human and time resources.

What is the best example of OER?

Examples of OER

• textbooks.
• courses.
• syllabi.
• lectures.
• assignments.
• tests and quizzes.
• lab and classroom activities.
• games and tutorials.

Can I adapt OER for my own needs?

Adapting OERs

This is possible because the copyright holder has already granted permission by releasing their work using an open — or Creative Commons — license. This type of license gives users permission to use and reuse, share, copy, retain and modify the textbook without consulting the author.

Why do we need OER?

OER allow revising and remixing of content so that faculty can teach exactly what they want to teach and how they want to teach it. OER remove price barriers, saving students money and making it possible for everyone to have their own copy of required course materials from the first day of class.

Who uses OER?

OER, therefore, applies to students, educators, faculty staff, and research. Also, using OER isn't limited to higher education. Primary and secondary educational institutions and learners can also use OER to improve their teaching and learning. So the answer is simple; OER is for anyone who aspires to learn or teach.

What is an example of an OER?

OER (Open Educational Resources) examples include open textbooks, full courses (like MIT OCW), lesson plans, streaming videos, quizzes, images, software, and even learning modules, all freely available for anyone to use, adapt, and share under open licenses. Major platforms like Khan Academy and OER Commons host vast collections, while specific examples range from Wikipedia articles to dinosaur bone scans used in education.
 

Are OERs free to use?

Open Educational Resources (OER) refers to teaching and learning materials that are freely available online for everyone to use and includes course modules, lectures, homework assignments, lab and classroom activities, pedagogical materials, games, simulations, and many more resources contained in digital media ...

What makes a good OER?

Characteristics of a good OER

clearly described. clearly licensed (normally through Creative Commons) from a source you trust. easy to modify.

What are the 4 pillars of education?

The four pillars of education, proposed by UNESCO in the 1990s, are Learning to Know, Learning to Do, Learning to Live Together, and Learning to Be, forming a holistic framework to guide lifelong learning for personal development and societal engagement, focusing on knowledge, skills, social harmony, and self-fulfillment.
 

How can teachers create their own OERs?

OER Commons, one of the largest databases of OERs, has three tools to help you create materials, including Open Author to put together different media, and the Module Builder. This free online class from Peer 2 Peer University takes you through the process of finding, remixing and creating OERs.

What are the 4 types of resources?

The four common types of resources, often called factors of production in economics, are Natural Resources, Human Resources, Capital Resources, and Entrepreneurship, which together create goods and services. Alternatively, other contexts group resources as Physical, Human, Financial, and Intellectual.
 

What are 5 examples of learning needs?

ALN - Types of Additional Learning Needs

• Dyslexia. ...
• Developmental Coordination Delay (DCD) ...
• Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) ...
• Speech and Language Difficulties. ...
• Visually Impaired. ...
• Deafness. ...
• Multi-sensory Impairment. ...
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

What are the benefits of OER?

Advantages of using OERs include:

Students anywhere in the world can access OERs at any time, and they can access the material repeatedly. scalability. OERs are easy to distribute widely with little or no cost. augmentation of class materials.

What is the purpose of an OER?

Open educational resources (OERs) are materials with open licences that enable free access, retention, reuse, revision and redistribution. These pages provide an introduction to how to create your own OERs, with suggestions of tools you might use and factors to consider, such as accessibility and licensing.

What are the challenges of OER?

The advantages of OER include increased access to quality education, reduced costs, and improved teaching and learning. Some of the challenges associated with OER include lack of awareness, inadequate infrastructure, and lack of skilled manpower.

What is not for commercial purposes?

Non-commercial means something is not primarily intended for, or directed towards, commercial advantage or monetary compensation by an individual or organisation. Your use of someone else's work should not conflict with the legitimate interests of the creator of an artistic work.

What is the most restrictive license?

The AGPL is considered the most restrictive copyleft license. It's similar to the GNU GPL but has an additional provision concerning software run over a network. If you use AGPL-licensed code in your web service, you must provide the entire source code to the users of that service.

Is CC by 4.0 permissive?

CC BY allows for distribution, remixing, adaptations, and expansion upon the original work as long as the original author is credited. This is the most permissive CC 4.0 license you can apply to your work.