Open Education Resources (IU Indy)

There is an internationally agreed on definition of 'open educational resources' supplied by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, which states:

Open Educational Resources are learning, teaching, and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright that have been released under an open license, that permit no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation, and redistribution by others.

Open educational resources (OER) are freely accessible online teaching and learning materials. They can be videos, textbooks, quizzes, learning modules and more. This guide is intended to introduce faculty and librarians to Open Educational Resources.  It points toward resources that either provide or promote the use of Open Educational Resources.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are any copyrightable work (or in the public domain) that is licensed in a manner that provides users with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:

1. Retain - the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)

2. Reuse - the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)

3. Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)

4. Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)

5. Redistribute - the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend) be retain, reuse, revise, remix and redistribute.

Open Educational Resources provide advantages to students, faculty, and the institution.  Among them are these:

• Materials are available to students at no cost
• Materials are available immediately upon course registration
• Students retain permanent access to learning materials
• Research shows that classes which use open educational resources have lower DFW rates, higher GPAs, and better student retention.

Ready to bring OERs into your classroom? Explore practical guides and strategies to help you incorporate OERs into your instruction practice.