Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely available educational materials that, through open licenses or public domain status, allow others to use, share, adapt, and expand upon.
They are commonly associated with their ability to apply the five R activities:
Image by BCOER Librarians is licensed under CC 4.0
OER are often compiled into a format resembling textbooks, but can include many other formats such as presentation slides, quizzes, and videos.
OER are flexible for faculty to use and share with their students, as well as adapt them for specific curricular needs. Students save money with the use of OER, since OER can replace expensive commercial textbooks and short-term access to for-cost resources, and can perform better in classes that use OER. As OER use and production grows, these resources will also provide more opportunities for learners worldwide to access educational content more equitably.
OER and Open Access -- What's the Difference?
This content is a derivative of the September 2020 Creative Commons Certificate Course by Creative Commons, licensed by CC BY 4.0, adapted content from the Creative Commons Certificate Course Unit 5 on using Creative Commons licensing for librarians
There are many OER repositories that curate collections:
You can use openly licensed and public domain works in creating your own OERs. Be sure to check CUNY's Accessibility Toolkit for Open Educational Resources for a guide on how to best create new accessible projects.
We cannot guarantee all works on the above sites are in the public domain or openly licensed. Be sure to check the work's specific terms of use.