Open Educational Resources (OER): About OERs

This guide provides information on and resources to assist with the use of Open Educational Resources (OERs). 

Retain
the right to make, own, and control copies of the content

Reuse
the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g. in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)

Revise
the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g. translate the content into another language)

Remix
the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new (e.g. incorporate the content into a mashup)

Redistribute
the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g. give a copy of the content to a friend)

This material was created by David Wiley and published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license at: opencontent.org/blog/archives/3221

• OERs reduce the need to create new learning materials from scratch.  
• They provide the flexibility to adapt and customise to meet specific requirements.
• OERs potentially reduce costs and increase accessibility for students. 
• They increase opportunities for collaboration. 

What is the difference between OER and open access?

Open Access refers to scholarly material that is freely available under an open licence and usually found in Open Access journals and institutional repositories.

Open Educational Resources are teaching resources that are freely available under an open licence and are typically reusable. The two are closely related and the key differences are the adaptation of resources allowed with OERs and the broader range of resources that are thought of as OERs. 

For more information on Open Access see the Open Access Guide.

There are many case studies online describing the benefits of creating OERs:

• Open Educational Resources Network
• Creative Commons- OER Case Studies