Open Educational Resources (OER): Frequently Asked Questions
OER Frequently Asked Questions
Why Use OER in your courses?
- Free!
- Peer-reviewed content
- Increased flexibility
- You can edit and remix content to meet the needs of your specific course
Can these free OER be high-quality?
Yes - while OER are free to access many were not free to produce and are often funded by federal, state, or institutional grants. For example, many of the textbooks found in the Maryland Open Source Textbook (M.O.S.T.) Commons were produced by faculty at Maryland public institutions using state and institutional funding. Additionally, many OER repositories like the Open Textbook Library and OER Commons utilize a rating and review system, where users can rank the OER on a scale of 1-5 stars.
Can I adapt OER to fit the specific needs of my course?
Typically yes -- OERs usually adhere to the five Rs and can be retained, reused, revised, remixed, and redistributed. Be sure to check the licensing on the particular OER you are looking to use. It will likely state that it is in the public domain and licensed with a Creative Commons license.
Image Source: "The 5 Rs of OER" is a derivative of the 5 R Permissions of OER by Lumen Learning, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What is a Creative Commons License?
The Creative Commons site explains that their licensing "give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. From the reuser’s perspective, the presence of a Creative Commons license on a copyrighted work answers the question, 'What can I do with this work?' " There are six types of Creative Commons licenses, which are explained in the graphic below.
How do OER impact student performance?
There have been numerous recent studies that have demonstrated the positive effects of OER on student performance. The articles linked below provide example.
Chat with a Librarian
Library Home | Library Admin | Alma | Worldshare Admin | Mobile Site