Open Educational Resources (OER)

"Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning and research materials...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" (UNESCO)

OER is Free and Legal to Use, Improve, and Share with Others

• Saves time and energy by adapting or revising resources that have already been created
• Expands opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching and learning by allowing instructors to integrate and revise multiple educational resources
• Resources can be added to fit the needs of specific populations of students

OER Can Lower Educational Cost and Improve Access to Information

• Reduces the cost of course materials, particularly textbooks so that all students have access and aren't as financially burdened
• Allows students to find and access needed course information instantly and using various devices.
• Gives learners the option of looking at course content openly before enrolling.

OER Gives Faculty the Flexibility to Create Innovative Courses

• Faculty can adopt a complete OER resource into their course, adapt them to better fit existing course content, or remix a collection of OER materials into a new resource to use in the classroom.
• Redefines "traditional" learning by incorporating multi-media, scenario-based education, or open pedagogy.
• Allows instructor to go beyond the confines of "teaching to the book."

There have been multiple studies on faculty implementations, misunderstandings, acceptance of, and evaluation of OER.

The Review Project has curated a number of empirical studies published in scholarly journals on the topic. Their general conclusion is: 

Several thousand students and faculty members have shared their perceptions across more than a dozen studies that have focused on perceptions of OER. Given that (1) students and teachers generally find OER to be as good or better than traditional textbooks, and (2) students do not perform worse when utilizing OER, then (3) students, parents and taxpayers stand to save literally billions of dollars without any negative impact on learning through the adoption of OER.