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Open Educational Resources (OER): Home

This Guide

This Guide will cover:

  • Define OER
  • Define the 5Rs
  • Free and lowcost textbooks
  • Sources for OER
  • Creative Common licensing
  • Evaluating OER
  • Attributing/Citing OER

Getting Started

Here are a few links to guide the process of finding and creating an open educational resource (OER):

If material is not an OER, you may consider requesting copyright permission. See Copyright box and Copyright and Fair Use Guide.

Discovery Search

The 5 Rs of Open

These are the possible activities, depending on the open license, that users are given permission to engage in with open content:

5Rs 5R Permissions

Retain

 Make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)

Reuse

 Use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)

Revise

 Adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content (e.g., translate the content into another language)

Remix

 Combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)

Redistribute

 Share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

This material is based on original writing by David Wiley, which was published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license  at  http://opencontent.org/definition/. 

What are OER?

"Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning or research materials that are in the public domain or released with an intellectual property license that allows for free use, adaptation, and distribution. " - UNESCO

OER can include:

  • Courses
  • Course materials
  • Modules
  • Textbooks
  • Streaming videos
  • Tests
  • Software
  • Other materials that support access to knowledge

     - William & Flora Hewlett Foundation

Librarian

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Maureen Mitchell
Contact:
Pecan Campus Library, Bldg F
mmitchel@southtexascollege.edu
(956) 872-2623