LibGuides: Open Educational Resources: What are Open Educational Resources?

Optional Self Reporting

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What are OER?

"The myriad of learning resources, teaching practices and education policies that use the flexibility of OER to provide learners with high quality educational experiences. Creative Commons defines OER as teaching, learning, and research materials that are either (a) in the public domain or (b) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities – retaining, remixing, revising, reusing and redistributing the resources."

- Hewlett Foundation (n.d.)

An Introduction to OER

"An Introduction to Open Educational Resources" by Abbey Elder is licensed under a Creative Commons 4.0 International license.

Benefits for Students

Significant savings on textbooks
Course materials are available on the first day of studies and after completing a course
Course materials are accessible

Leeward CC students from Michele Mahi's COM 210H class speak about using OERs.

OER Savings Map
Displays cumulative OER savings from post-secondary institutions across the world.

5R's of Openness

What does it mean for a learning resource to be "open"? The 5R framework, developed by David Wiley, defines the major characteristics of "open" content.

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 Clarifying and Strengthening the 5Rs.

Benefits for Instructors

Flexibility in customising content
Sharing
Ease of updating OER
Working together with students to create assignments
Be sure that students can use and easily access an assigned textbook in a course

A presentation by Professor Rory McGreal, Athabasca University, Canada for the Technology-Enabled Learning Community of Practice Webinar in March 2020.

Subject Guide

McKenzie Young

She/Her

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Subjects: CAD & BIM Technologies, Computer Technology and Electronics, Esthetics & Spa Therapy, Fashion Arts, Hair Design, Jewellery & Gemology, Music & Dance, Open Educational Resources (OER), Project Management, Visual Communications and Graphic Design

Benefits for Administrators and Policy Makers

Potential for increased enrolment
Improved course grades
OER addresses affordability, completion, attainment gap concerns, and learning) (Colvard, Watson, & Park, 2018. The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics. 2018, Volume 30, Number 2, 262-276. https://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE3386.pdf)

David Wiley: The Financial Potentials of Open Educational Resources by educause.

David Wiley is is Co-Founder and Chief Academic Officer of Lumen Learning.

Creative Commons Attribution license (reuse allowed)