The document discusses the significance of Open Educational Resources (OER) as defined by UNESCO, highlighting their role in providing no-cost access to educational materials that can be adapted and shared. It outlines UNESCO's recommendations for enhancing OER, including capacity building and policy development, while discussing various types of OER, their benefits, and challenges related to access and quality. The document emphasizes the importance of OER in improving global education quality and promoting collaboration among institutions.

1. Importance of Open
Educational Resources (OER)
in Research
AICTE sponsored One-week Online STTP on “New Dimensions in Research Support Services: A Contemporary Library Perspective”
Shri Ram
Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology
Patiala-147004, Punjab

2. Open
Educational
Resources
Concept

3. The Concept of OER
UNESCO Given the Definition of OER
“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.”
The term “Open Education Resource” was first coined in 2002 at a forum
organized by UNESCO on Open Courseware in Higher Education

4. 5Rs of the OER
(License Allow to Use)
Retain Reuse Revise Remix Redistribute
(https://opencontent.org/definition/)
 Redistribute - share copies of your
original, revised, or remixed copy
of the resource with others (e.g.,
post a copy online or give one to a
friend)
 Retain - make, own, and control a
copy of the resource (e.g.,
download and keep your own
copy)
 Revise - edit, adapt, and modify
your copy of the resource (e.g.,
translate into another language)
 Remix - combine your original or
revised copy of the resource with
other existing material to create
something new (e.g., make a
mashup)
 Reuse - use your original,
revised, or remixed copy of the
resource publicly (e.g., on a
website, in a presentation, in a
class)

5. The UNESCO Mandate on OER
UNESCO Mandate
“UNESCO believes that universal access to
information through high quality education
contributes to peace, sustainable social and
economic development, and intercultural
dialogue. OER provide a strategic opportunity to
improve the quality of learning and knowledge
sharing as well as improve policy dialogue,
knowledge-sharing and capacity-building
globally..”
UNESCO leads inter-governmental discussions on
OER capacity building, policy, sustainability, quality,
and accessibility issues and its applications to meet
the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

6. The UNESCO Recommendations on OER
UNESCO Recommendations on OER
The UNESCO Recommendation outlines five
Areas of Actions:
• Building the capacity of stakeholders to
create, access, re-use, adapt and redistribute
OER;
• Developing supportive policy for OER;
• Encouraging inclusive and equitable quality
OER;
• Nurturing the creation of sustainability models
for OER; and
• Promoting and reinforcing international
cooperation in OER.
(Source: https://en.unesco.org/themes/building-knowledge-societies/oer/recommendation)
In November 2019, the 40th UNESCO General Conference adopted the
UNESCO OER Recommendation which is the only international standard
setting framework in this area worldwide.

7. TYPES OF OER
 OER Learning Objects
 OER Digitized Library Collections
 OER Encyclopedia
 OER Online Archives
 Open Textbooks
 OER Courseware
 OpenCourseWare Consortium
 OER Courses
 Open Source Software Used in OER (e.g. Simulations)
 Online Tools Support and Empower the OER Community
A learning object is "a
collection of content
items, practice items,
and assessment items
that are combined
based on a single
learning objective"
Digital
Collections, Digital
Libraries and
the Digitization of
Thesis, or Cultural
Heritage Information
OER Encyclopedia that
can be edited by
Volunteers (e.g.
Wikipedia, Encyclopedia
of Life, Stanford
Encyclopedia of
Philosophy)
Online archives are collections
of digital materials (e.g. ‘The
Internet Archive’ - the most
extensive, hosting movies, text,
audio and a collection of
websites
Courseware are instructional
materials used to teach a
specific course including
lecture notes, texts, reading
lists, course assignments,
syllabi, study materials,
problem sets, exams,
illustrations and streaming
videos of in-class lectures.
The Open Courseware
Consortium is a collaborative
effort of more than 250
universities around the world.

8. TYPES OF OER
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33442-9_8
Tanya Percy & Jean-Paul Van Belle (2012)

9. Classification of OERs
Self-published Reviewed Peer-reviewed
Option of Post-review.
OER based on Quality
Text/Print Visual/ Photograph Audio Video/ Audio-
Visual Animation
Based on the Format
Slide sharing Class presentation E-content
presentation for OER Formal public presentations
OER based on Presentation
Individual Open authoring
Collaborative work
OER Based on Ownership
Copyright protected Creative Commons Public
Domain
OER based on Licensing
Reading materials Text/Units Modular Course
OER Based on Nature of Content

10. WHY OER
COST OF THE
TEXTBOOKS
Textbook costs overall have risen 67%
from 2008 to 2018 - some four
year college students spend close to
15000-18000 a year on textbooks.
Most of the textbook industry is
dominated by five publishing companies
- Pearson Education, McGraw-Hill
Education, Cengage Learning, Elsevier,
Prentice Hall of India.
With an estimated market of INR 10,000
crores, India ranks third after the US
and UK in English language publishing.
Currently the sector is witnessing a
Compound Annual Growth Rate
(CAGR) of 30%.
http://ficci.in/sector/86/project_docs/publishing-sector-profile.pdf

11. WHY OER
Benefits of OER
• ‘Maintaining & building on institutional
reputation globally
• Attracting new staff and students to
institution – recruitment tool for students and
prospective employer partners
• Increased transparency and quality of
learning materials
• Shares expertise efficiently within institutions
• Encourages high-quality learning & teaching
resources
• Supports modular course development
• Supports the altruistic notion that sharing
knowledge is in line with academic traditions
and a good thing to do
• Likely to encourage review of curriculum,
pedagogy and assessment
• Enhancing connections with external
stakeholders by making resources visible.’.

12. Quick Circulation
Information may be
disseminated rapidly
(especially when
compared to information
published in textbooks or
journals, which may take
months or even years to
become available). Quick
availability of material may
increase the timeliness
and/or relevance of the
material being presented.
Showcasing of
innovation and
talent
A wide audience may
learn of faculty research
interests and expertise
Continually
Improved
Resources
Unlike textbooks and
other static sources of
information, OERs can
be improved quickly
through direct editing by
users or through
solicitation and
incorporation of user
feedback.
WHY OER
Expanded
Access to
Learning
• Anywhere, Anytime
Access to OERs
• access the material
repeatedly
Scalability
OERs are easy to
distribute widely with
little or no cost
Augmentation
of Class
Materials
OERs can
supplement
textbooks and
lectures where
deficiencies in
information are
evident
Enhancement
of Regular
Course
Content
For example,
multimedia material
such as videos can
accompany text.
Presenting
information in
multiple formats may
help students to
more easily learn the
material being
taught.

13. OER POLICY
Peer Review System; Quality Review Board
Quality Assurance and Review System
Declaration; Policy Statements; Policy Objectives; Scope
& Applicability; Copyright & Licensing
OER POLICY
Portal Design; Intuitional Repositories, etc.
Institutional Arrangements
Institutional Property; Or Borrowed who
will take ownership?
OER Liability (Ownership)
OER Policy is
the principles or
tenets adopted
by governing
bodies in
support of the
use of open
content—
specifically open
educational
resources (OER)
-- and practices
in educational
institutions.
OER POLICY

14. TIET OER POLICY
• Definition
• SCOPE
• Institutional OER
Objectives
• OER Evaluation
Board
• Quality Assurance
Board
• Library Role
• IT Infrastructure
• Access
• Copyright
OER POLICY
 Guidelines on the development of open educational resources
policies
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000371129
 Commonwealth of Learning OER Institutional Policies
http://oasis.col.org/handle/11599/2361

15. OER RESOURCES
LIBRARY INITIATIVES TO
PROMOTE OER
 Marketing of the OER
 Portal for OER
 Evaluating OER
 Searching Techniques for OER
 Curriculum Mapping
 Identifying OER Resources
Advocate
OER
Library Should Promote and
Advocate OER culture in the institute
with the aim to supplement institute
curriculum with pertinent Open
Educational Resources

16. LIBRARY INITIATIVES TO PROMOTE OER
 Library Portal for OER
 What type of OER available
 Evaluation of OER
 Evaluation Rubrics
 Evaluation Committee
 Quality Board
 Subject wise available Resources
 Course wise available OER
 Usage Report of OER

17. Evaluation of OER
3rd 5th
4th
2nd
1st
Does this OER cover the content
you'd like your students to learn in
this course or module?
How accessible is this content?
Will it be accessible for your
students, or is it too technical?
Or is it robust and challenging
enough for your students?
How can you use the content?
Verify the license that the resource
is under. Can you remix or revise
the OER as long as it isn't for
commercial purposes? Who do you
have to recognize if you use it? Will
you be able to do so? For more help
with this, please contact the library.
Once you determine how you can
use the OER, what would you like to
do with it? Does only a portion of it
apply to your class? Would you
possibly want to combine this OER
with another OER or resource?
Does the library have access to
articles that could act as
supplemental readings?
As you collect more OER and
other resources, save them in a
central location. Take Feedback.
Align these resources with the
learning objectives of the
syllabus in order to identify gaps.

18. Achieve OER Evaluation Tool
Rubric I: Degree of Alignment to Standards
Rubric II: Quality of Explanation of the Subject Matter
Rubric III: Utility of Materials Designed to Support Teaching
Rubric IV: Quality of Assessments
Rubric V: Quality of Technological Interactivity
Rubric VI: Quality of Instructional and Practice Exercises
Rubric VII: Opportunities for Deeper Learning
Rubric VIII: Assurance of Accessibility
OER offer extraordinary opportunities for educators everywhere to freely
share knowledge and resources. However, educators using this vast system
need a method of filtering through the millions of OER learning objects to find
those that will meet the needs of their students and inform their instruction
Source: www.achieve.org/oerLrubrics.

19. https://www.oercommons.org/
OER COMMONS

20. Achieve OER Evaluation

21. How Librarian Can
Start an OER
Activities

22.  Deposit OER
• OER collections like and OER Commons are made of resources created
by the community. You can contribute as well! Once you've created and
licensed an item, deposit it in one of these collections or choose one of the
subject-specific collections
 Use one OER
• Try out an Open Educational Resources from one of the many collections
out there in your class. It can be an assignment, in-class activity, or any
other small component of your overall class. If you like it, keep using it!
 Review OER
• If you use OER material in your class, consider posting a review to let
others know how useful an item is. Many OER collections like Merlot offer
the option of peer reviews from the community. If you want to be an official
OER reviewer, check out for official peer reviewers.
• If you run a blog or social media site, you can write a post with a review
of the material that you have found and used.
 Make a list of OER resources for your discipline
• Make a list on your website or blog.
• Send it to a discipline's mailing list.
• Post it on social media like Academia.edu or LinkedIn.
• Discuss with specialists

23. Step 1:
Brainstorm Learning Outcomes?​
​Material Types?
Time Commitment?
• Curriculum Mapping
• Resource Type Choice

24. Step 2:
Explore
• Search Various OER Platform
• Select Resources
• Map with the Curriculum
• Involve Different OER Committees

25. Creative Commons Directory lists
where to find different types of
OER...
 Courses​
 Images/Videos/Audio​
 And more!
 Textbooks​
 Lectures & Tutorials​
 Simulations and Animations
This Photo by Unknown
Author is licensed under
CC BY
https://creativecommons.org/about/program-areas/education-oer/

26. Develop a Portal for OER and
provide guides for it
Step 3:

27. Licensing of OER
Attribution (BY) --- No Derivatives (ND) --- Share Alike (SA) --- Non-Commercial (NC)
Creative Commons (CC)
The Creative Commons website offers a menu of standard IP
licenses that offer creators options about how their materials
can be used by others. These IP licenses can be electronically
appended to intellectual properties free of charge.
https://creativecommons.org/

28. Creative Commons
• Creative Commons (CC) is an
American non-profit organization
devoted to expanding the range of
creative works available for others to
build upon legally and to share
• It gives everyone from individual
creators to large companies and
institutions a simple, standardized
way to grant copyright permissions
to their creative work.
• A Creative Commons (CC) license is
one of several public copyright
licenses that enable the free
distribution of an otherwise
copyrighted "work"
(https://creativecommons.org/)

30. License Associated with OER
Attribution (BY) --- No Derivatives (ND) --- Share Alike (SA) --- Non-Commercial (NC)
1. The first element – Attribution or “BY” – is present on every license. Essentially, this means when you use OER, you’ll credit the creator of
that material. Plain and simple -- creators of CC-licensed material receive credit for their work no differently than creators of traditionally
copyrighted materials.
2. The second symbol means NoDerivatives or “ND” - indicates cases where the creator says that re-users must share the work as-is, without
adapting that work.
3. The third symbol means ShareAlike or “SA” - means that any adaptations based on the work must be licensed under the same license of the
original work. This means that if you remix a CC-BY-SA work with other material, you need to license your adaptation under an SA license as
well.
4. The fourth and final symbol means NonCommercial or “NC” - which means you can only use the work if your purpose is non-commercial. For
us in the educational sphere, our purposes are almost always noncommercial
The Four Creative Commons (CC) License Elements

31. The 6 Creative
Commons Licenses
Applicable
“Some Rights
Reserved”
There are the six different licenses, each of
which again indicate the rights – No-
Derivative, Share Alike, Non-Commercial
along with Attribution – that the author
wishes to reserve for their creations.
These CC licenses – along with materials in
the public domain -- are how you recognize
what is OER. Just as copyright is “all rights
reserved” Creative Commons licenses are
“Some Rights Reserved” – they don’t
violate copyright law. These licenses fully
work within the scope of copyright law.
License Associated with OER

32. Creative Commons Traffic Light
https://commons.wikimedia.org/
Refers to the most restrictive
(and usual) Copyright licenses.
Refers to Copyleft
Refers to Anticopyright
Scope Covered
by Creative
Commons.
Refers to free cultural
works.

33. Creative Commons Traffic Light
https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/
“No Rights Reserved”
CC0 enables scientists, educators,
artists and other creators and
owners of copyright- or database-
protected content to waive those
interests in their works and thereby
place them as completely as
possible in the public domain, so that
others may freely build upon,
enhance and reuse the works for
any purposes without restriction
under copyright or database law

34. Creative Commons Traffic Light
https://creativecommons.org/use-remix/cc-licenses/#by
Attribution (CC BY)
This license lets others distribute,
remix, tweak, and build upon your
work, even commercially, as long
as they credit you for the original
creation.
This is the most accommodating
of licenses offered.
Recommended for maximum
dissemination and use of
licensed materials.

35. Creative Commons Traffic Light
https://commons.wikimedia.org/
Attribution ShareAlike
(CC BY-SA)
This license lets others remix,
tweak, and build upon your
work even for commercial
purposes, as long as they
credit you and license their
new creations under the
identical terms.
This license is often compared to
“copyleft” free and open source
software licenses

36. Creative Commons Traffic Light
https://creativecommons.org/use-remix/cc-licenses/#by
Attribution-NoDerivatives
(CC BY-ND)
This license lets others reuse the
work for any purpose, including
commercially; however, it cannot
be shared with others in adapted
form, and credit must be provided
to you.

37. Creative Commons Traffic Light
https://creativecommons.org/use-remix/cc-licenses/#by
Attribution-Non Commercial
(CC BY-NC)
This license lets others remix,
tweak, and build upon your
work non-commercially, and
although their new works must
also acknowledge you and be
non-commercial, they don’t
have to license their derivative
works on the same terms.

38. Creative Commons Traffic Light
https://creativecommons.org/use-remix/cc-licenses/#by
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
(CC BY-NC-SA)
This license lets others remix, tweak, and
build upon your work non-commercially, as
long as they credit you and license their new
creations under the identical terms.

39. Creative Commons Traffic Light
https://creativecommons.org/use-remix/cc-licenses/#by
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
(CC BY-NC-ND)
This license is the most restrictive of our six
main licenses, only allowing others to
download your works and share them with
others as long as they credit you, but they
can’t change them in any way or use them
commercially.

40. Creative Commons Traffic Light
https://creativecommons.org/use-remix/cc-licenses/#by
Copyright is intended to protect
the original expression of an
idea in the form of a creative
work, but not the idea itself.

41. Creative Commons
https://creativecommons.org/
Least
Freedom
More
Freedom

43. The Copyright Act 1957
http://copyright.gov.in/

44. Use of Copyrighted Material in Research
PD
Classroom
Teaching &
Research
Attribution according to
the creative common
licenses
CC Licenses
Materials available in
public domain with free
from copyright law
Public Domain
Use of materials under
fair use policies
Fair Use
Materials exempted
under copyright laws
Copyright Exceptions
Get permissions from
the copyright holder
and use
Permission to Use

45. Public Domain Materials
Materials
whose
Copyright
Expired
Government
Document
Public Domain Material
Not Own or Controlled
by Anyone
Rather
“Public Property”
Lifetime of the
Author (Creator)
+60 Years
Life of the
Author
(Creator)
+70 Years
Life of the
Author
(Creator)
+70 Years
When a work becomes available for use
without permission from a copyright owner,
it is said to be “in the public domain.” Most
works enter the public domain because
their copyrights have expired

46. Public Domain Materials
Materials whose
Copyright
Expired
Government
Documents
Public Domain Material
Not Own or Controlled
by Anyone
Rather
“Public Property”
Materials
whose
Copyright
Expired
The report of any committee, commission,
council, board or other like body appointed
by the Government if such report has been
laid on the Table of the Legislature, unless
the reproduction or publication of such
report is prohibited by the Government;
Census Data or other type available for
Public Benefits
U.S. government creative
works are usually
produced by government
employees as part of their
official duties. These
works include writings,
images, videos, and
computer code. A
government work is

47. Public Domain Materials
Materials whose
Copyright
Expired
Materials
Released into
Public by
Copyright Holder
A copyright owner
can directly dedicate
a work to the public
domain
Public Domain Material
Not Own or Controlled
by Anyone
Rather
“Public Property”
Materials
whose
Copyright
Expired
Government
Documents
Government
Documents

48. https://publicdomainreview.org/

49. Founded in 2011, The Public Domain Review is
an online journal and not-for-profit project
dedicated to the exploration of curious and
compelling works from the history of art,
literature, and ideas.
In particular, the focus is on works which have
now fallen into the public domain, that vast
commons of out-of-copyright material that
everyone is free to enjoy, share, and build upon
without restriction.

51. https://www.abhilekh-patal.in/jspui/

52. https://www.abhilekh-patal.in/jspui/
Abhilekh Patal is a full-featured web-portal
to access the National Archives of India’s
reference media and its digitized collections
through the internet. It is ‘work-in-progress’
and both the reference media and the
digital data will be regularly augmented.
The National Archives of India is the
repository of the non-current records of the
Government of India and is holding them in
trust for the use of records creators and
general users. It is an Attached Office of the
Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

53. https://wpclipart.com https://www.pdclipart.org/

56. • Project Gutenberg is a
volunteer effort to digitize and
archive cultural works, to
"encourage the creation and
distribution of eBooks".
• It was founded in 1971 by
American writer Michael S. Hart
and is the oldest digital library.
• Most of the items in its
collection are the full texts of
public domain books

57. DRM Free e-Books

58. DRM Free e-Books
Cannot be edited and modified, Some kind of Copyright Laws
may apply but are free to download by the user and use
Section 65A of Copyright Act, 1957 imposed criminal sanctions on
circumvention of "effective technological protection measures". Section
65B criminalized interference with digital rights management information.
Any distribution of copies whose rights management information was
modified was also criminalized by Section 65B. However, as a part of its 2012
amendment of copyright laws, it implemented digital rights management protection.

60. Open TextBooks Portal
• Open Textbook Library Open Access
The Open Textbook Library at the University of Minnesota offers a catalog of open, peer-reviewed textbooks that can be
downloaded for free.
• OpenStax Open Access
OpenStax from Rice University offers free, online educational materials and textbooks, some of which can be printed at an
affordable price.
• Open SUNY Textbooks Open Access
A pilot open textbook publishing initiative established by State University of New York that engages faculty as authors and
peer-reviewers and libraries as publishing service and infrastructure.
• BCcampus Open Ed Open Access
BCcampus has curated a collection of open textbooks that align with the top 40 highest enrolled first and second year post-
secondary subject areas in British Columbia. Many books have been reviewed by faculty and include ancillary resources.
Particular strengths include
• Saylor Academy Open Access
In addition to other open educational content, Saylor Academy offers over 100 open textbooks under a variety of Creative
Commons licenses.
• American Institute of Mathematics Open Access
Open textbooks that have been approved by the American Institute of Mathematics.
• InTech Open Access
InTech is the publisher of one of the largest open access collection of books in the fields of Science, Technology and
Medicine.
• MIT OpenCourseWare: Online Textbooks Open Access
An index of online textbooks in MIT OpenCourseWare, including open-licensed electronic versions of print books, self-
published online books, or course notes which are so thorough that they serve as an alternative to a conventional textbook.
• FLOSS Manuals Open Access
A free, collaboratively-built collection of manuals about free and open source software.

64. YouTube as Open
Educational Resources
• While there’s a ton of entertaining cat and fail
videos on YouTube, data shows half the people
on YouTube are there for education.
• A new research study surveyed 4,594 people
and found that 51 percent of YouTube users
uses YouTube videos to learn new things
EVALUATION
• Cognitive features
• Video production style
• Video length and speed, speaker
• gender and native language
• Video annotation with built-in cognitive
features

70. Directory of Open Access Repositories

73. PRE-PRINT ARCHIVES

74. With a preprint,
 Rapid Dissemination (other researchers can
discover your work sooner)
 potentially pointing out critical flaws or errors,
 suggest new studies or data that strengthen
your argument or even recommend a
collaboration that could lead to publication in a
more prestigious journal.
 Increased Attention, Early Citations,
 Community Engagements
 The feedback can be provided publicly through
commenting, or privately through email
 Ten Time Increase in the Pre-Print Content
Repository
Benefits of Preprint Archive
Cons:
Peer review : there is no formal peer review
Novelty : Novelty is a key criterion for classic
journal acceptance

75. Pre-Print Archive Servers

80. Summaries
the OER
Adoption
 Step one: Set aside time
 Step two: take a look to see if someone else has
created a similar, complete OER course or textbook
 Step three: Get cozy with your learning objectives,
curriculum mapping
 Step four: Use Google “Advanced Search” to search
for open resources
 Step five: Search within some of the specific OER
repositories/OER search engines
 Step six: Look for library materials like ebooks,
articles and streaming videos to fill in gaps
 Step seven: Not finding what you’re looking for? Take
experts advise
 Step seven: Prepare an OER Policy, Involve Different
Committee, Consider creating and sharing your own
OER

81. THANK YOU
Shri Ram, PhD
Deputy Librarian &
Nodal Officer, IPR Cell, TIET
shriram@thapar.edu