Open Educational Resources (OER) are freely available educational materials that can be used, shared and adapted under open licenses. OER encompasses resources ranging from individual assignments to full courses and textbooks. They offer a free alternative to expensive textbooks while allowing for multi-modal learning. Instructors can find OER through dedicated sites like Merlot and SkillsCommons or through a Creative Commons search. While OER provides opportunities for sharing knowledge, their scattered availability and potential lack of quality, appropriateness or accessibility must be considered. Instructors are encouraged to create their own OER to further share educational resources without limitation.

1. Open Educational Resources
Free Education through OER

2. What is OER?
“Open Educational Resources (OER) are high-quality, openly licensed, online
educational materials that offer an extraordinary opportunity for people
everywhere to share, use, and reuse knowledge.”
-William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
• Digital, free to use, and available under Creative Commons licenses
• Encompasses everything from assignments and learning objects to whole classes
and textbooks

3. Why Use OER?
• Textbooks are expensive, OER is free
• OER can come in different formats for multi-modal learning
• Saves the time it would take to create something from scratch

4. How to find OER
• Many sites are dedicated to providing OER content for instructors
• Merlot: http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm
• SkillsCommons: https://www.skillscommons.org/
• OPEN: https://open4us.org/
• Boundless: https://www.boundless.com/
• MCO Digital Study: http://study.ncmco.us
• And many more…
• A search portal is available through search.creativecommons.org to make finding
Creative Commons licensed material to create OER easy

5. Drawbacks to OER
• Content scattered on various repositories
• Must be vetted for appropriateness, quality, and accessibility
• Student access to technology could be limited
• Cultural barriers could exist between the content creator and the student
• Content online is prone to changing or disappearing completely

6. Why Should Instructors Create OER?
“He who receives ideas from me receives instruction
without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at
mine receives light without darkening me.”
-Thomas Jefferson

7. Sources
• OER Logo is licensed CC0
• Thomas Jefferson Image is licensed CC0