Open Educational Resources: Home

This 4m 40s video summarizes Hilton, Mason, & Clinton-Lisell's review of existing research on Open Educational Resources in 2016. The Review Project is continually updated with new research as it comes out.  

 What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?

Open Educational Resources are educational materials and resources offered freely and openly for anyone to use and under some licenses to re-mix, improve and redistribute.They include:

• Learning content: full courses, course material, content modules, learning objects, collections, and journals.
• Tools: software to support the creation, delivery, use and improvement of open learning content including searching and organization of content, content and learning management systems, content development tools, and online learning communities.
• Implementation resources: Intellectual property licenses to promote open publishing of materials, design-principles, and localization of content.

Why OER?

OER is a relatively new movement in education; educators and learners as well as learning institutions are driving its development. OER provides an alternative to the rising costs of education. It alleviates the burden of student debt while providing opportunities to students who might not otherwise be able to afford or access materials. For example, in some countries like South Africa, many educators and learners are tapping into OER as the only source for textbooks.

OER provides an opportunity to try new ways of teaching and learning, many of which are more collaborative and participatory. 

For more information, take a look at this comprehensive guide to OER at Edutopia: Open Educational Resources (OER): Resource Roundup

For questions about Open Education Resources, contact Greg Szczyrbak

For questions about Copyright, contact Krista Higham.  Also see our Copyright Information guide.