WHAT ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER)?
Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse, without charge. That means they have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. For some of these resources, that means you can download the resource and share it with colleagues and students. For others, it may be that you can download a resource, edit it in some way, and then re-post it as a remixed work. OER often have a Creative Commons or GNU license that state specifically how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared.
The Internet is rich with open educational resources for teachers and learners. However, finding those resources is often time-consuming. OER Commons helps educators, students, and lifelong learners find Open Educational Resources through a single point of access from which they can search, browse, and evaluate resources in OER Common's growing collection of 50,000 high-quality OER.
Open educational resources (OER) are part of the Open Education movement, and teachers, students, and learning institutions are driving its development. Educational leaders around the world are tapping into OER as a cost saving source of curriculum, and also because of the opportunity it provides for supporting teaching practice and learning in a flexible, equitable, collaborative and participatory manner.
What are some examples of OER Materials?
- Full university courses, complete with readings, videos of lectures, homework assignments, and lecture notes.
- Interactive mini-lessons and simulations about a specific topic, such as math or physics.
- Adaptations of existing open work.
- Electronic textbooks that are peer-reviewed and frequently updated.
- Elementary school and high school (K-12) lesson plans, worksheets, and activities that are aligned with state standards.