OER (Open Educational Resources)PR E SE NT ED B Y ST E VE N MCG A HA N

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• Some materials may be outdated or not very useful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