Open Educational Resources: The Basics of OER

What are OER?

"Open Educational Resources (OER) 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." (source: UNESCO Recommendation on Open Educational Resources, 2019, p.5)

Benefits of OER

Here are just a few benefits of using OER:

• student success
• higher completion rates
• cost savings for students
• more freedom for faculty in selecting course materials
• faculty can edit, reorder, and remix OER materials
• clearly defined user rights means no need to interpret Fair Use and TEACH Act guidelines

Identifying OER - The 5 Rs of OER**The 5Rs of OER is based on original writings by David Wiley (CCby4.0License)  Graphic: https://unevoc.unesco.org/home/Open+Educational+Resources+in+TVET

Types of OER

Image Source: https://unevoc.unesco.org/home/Open+Educational+Resources+in+TVET