What Are Open Educational Resources?
• Materials for education that are free to use
• No copyright or Creative Commons copyright
• Can be a large range of learning objects from videos and websites to full textbooks and interactive learning objects
• Some definitions include creation solely for education
• Some definitions include that the materials must be digital
• OER must be free to use with no claim to copyright
• However, they can be restricted by certain criteria
Copyright and OER
• Open Educational Resources use two types of copyright
• No rights reserved
• Creative Commons
• By definition, OER must be openly accessible to instructors and possibly students as well
• As the use of OER increases, the most common copyright standard is Creative Commons
• Creative Commons allows creators to maintain intellectual property without restricting use
What Kind of Materials Can You Find?
• Websites
• Videos
• Books
• Assignments and Case Studies
• Simulations
• Tutorials
• Learning Objects
Pros and Cons
• Pros
• Large quantity of online materials
• Free to use under open or Creative Commons licenses
• Draw from a diverse pool of content creators
• Cons
• Because of the large quantity of materials, may be difficult to find specific content and sorting through materials can be time consuming
• Some materials may be outdated or not very useful
• Searches can be confusing unless you use specific criteria