Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials like textbooks, videos, and tests that are in the public domain or licensed under Creative Commons, allowing free use, adaptation, and sharing. OER use Creative Commons licenses that allow creators to retain ownership while permitting their work to be used, adapted, reused, or remixed. Benefits of OER include being free, customizable, able to be shared, drawing from many sources, and promoting collaboration, while challenges include licensing variations, quality control, lack of consistent backing over time, and difficulty finding up-to-date resources.

1. About OER:
Open Educational Resources
Michael Hanscom / Winter 2022

2. What is OER?
Just the basics for today…

3. Open Educational Resources (OER)
are Public Domain or open licensed
educational materials free to use and
adapt by anyone

4. OER materials use
Creative Commons licensing
Creative Commons
licenses allow creators to
retain ownership while
also allowing their work
to be used, adapted, re-
used, and/or remixed.

5. There are six possible Creative Commons licenses
BY
Credit must be given to the
creator
BY-SA
Credit must be given to the
creator
Adaptations must be shared
under the same terms
BY-NC
Credit must be given to the
creator
Only noncommercial uses of
the work are permitted
BY-NC-SA
Credit must be given to the
creator
Only noncommercial uses of
the work are permitted
Adaptations must be shared
under the same terms
BY-ND
Credit must be given to the
creator
No derivatives or adaptations
of the work are permitted
BY-NC-ND
Credit must be given to the
creator
Only noncommercial uses of
the work are permitted
No derivatives or adaptations
of the work are permitted

6. Benefits
✘ Free! Easier on you and your students’ wallets
✘ Can be customized to fit your needs
✘ You work can then be shared with others
✘ Many sources of OER material to draw from
✘ Promotes collaboration and sharing among
the educational community

7. Challenges
✘ Licensing variations can be confusing at first
✘ Not always “ready to use out of the box”
✘ No consistent quality control or editorial
oversight
✘ Without consistent backing, OER projects may
be abandoned over time
✘ Can be difficult to find up-to-date resources

8. Credits
Special thanks to all the people who made and
released these awesome resources for free:
✘ "Education Sketchnotes" by Jimena Catalina, Slides Carnival is licensed under CC BY 4.0
✘ "Creative Commons Cupcakes" by Eugene Kim is licensed under CC BY 2.0
This “About OER” presentation by Michael
Hanscom is licensed under CC BY 4.0.