LibGuides: Open Educational Resources (OER): Introduction

OER Basics

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium - digital or otherwise - that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions (https://en.unesco.org/themes/building-knowledge-societies/oer)

OER usability:

Suitable for instructors, students, self-learners
Free online resources
They may be reused and/or customized
They often use Creative Commons copyright licenses
They may be accessed via www.oercommons.org

Governed by the principles of:

Universal sharing of information and knowledge
Information sharing for human development

At the core of OER is allowing reuse: as equally important as making educational resources freely available is making them free to reuse in whatever way you would like, whether that be downloading and copying, adding to a course website, or editing and releasing a new version. The Open Education community often refers to the "5R's" when talking about OER: these are the activities you are free to do with OER.

Retain: Download and copy
Reuse: Use in any way, such as in a class, on a website, in a video
Revise: Modify or adapt
Remix: Combine original content with other material to make something new
Redistribute: Share copies with others

This guide is a quick start to finding, evaluating, adopting, adapting, and creating open educational resources.

Open Education Resources Grant

The Open movement seeks to equalize access to knowledge and expand educational opportunities through Open Educational Resources. Consequently, universities have developed Open Textbooks and course content to alleviate the cost of educational resources and promote student retention. In advancing global access to quality SDA higher education resources, the JWL proposes a grant to incentivize the development of OERs.

Objectives

To expand the outreach of Adventist education: deepen students’ education experience through customized educational resources.
To encourage instructor experimentation and innovation in finding new, better, and lower-cost ways to deliver learning materials to their students through OER.