Visit the OER Toolkit for information and tools to help faculty and library staff understand, engage with, and sustain OER in their work and practice.
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation define Open Educational Resources (OER) as:
"teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – 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."
When people think of OERs they often think of open textbooks. However, OERs can be tests, lesson plans, assignments, videos, infographics or online learning objects.
"OER Global Logo" by Jonathas Mello is licensed under CC BY 3.0
As an educator you can make a difference in the financial lives of your students. There are different ways that you can incorporate OER into your classroom practice.
ADOPT - You may find an OER such as an Open Textbook that is a great fit for the course that you are teaching. If so, you can "adopt" it and use it as is and make it available to your students in whatever format (online or print) it is offered.
ADAPT - If you find an OER that could be improved with an edit or additional information you can modify it with your edits. This option allows you to add the perfect context for your course to the great content that already exists. You can also share your new version with the educational community.
CREATE - You already have created a lot of material for your courses. Handouts, lecture material, online exercises are all examples of OERs. Add a Creative Commons license and make them available for your students and other educators to use and build on.
Centennial Libraries can help you adopt, adapt, create an OER in the following ways:
Contact your liaison librarian or the OER Librarian for more information
