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OER and Other Zero-Cost Instructional Materials

Defining Open Educational Resource (OER)

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation provides the following definition of open educational resources (OER):


OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.

 

 

Open textbooks, are a particular kind of OER that can help alleviate the burden of textbook costs for students and provide faculty with content that can be customized for their course.

 

Yes, OER are free!  But they are not only free; they are free with permission to be reused and modified.
OPEN = 
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What is NOT an OER?  The following may be free, but are not openly licensed, and therefore not OER (non-open):

  • Online resources with an "all rights reserved" copyright
  • Library licensed content (articles, ebooks)
  • Print books borrowed from or on reserve at the library

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