Open educational resources (OER) refer to educational materials designed for teaching and learning purposes, accessible to all individuals, including educators, students, and self-learners, without any cost. These resources are readily available on the internet. OER encompasses a wide range of materials, such as complete courses, course sections, outlines, class presentations, assignments, tests, practical activities, instructional resources, interactive elements like games and simulations, and numerous other digital media collections contributed by various sources globally.
When creators of educational materials want to make their work openly available as OER, they often choose to apply a Creative Commons license to their content. Creative Commons licenses are a set of copyright licenses that enable content creators to grant specific permissions to users while retaining some rights for themselves. These licenses provide a simple way to communicate how others can use the work without the need for individualized permissions. If you are interested in learning more about creative common licenses, visit creativecommons.org
OERs are built around five principles: retain; reuse; revise; remix; and redistribute. This is known as the 5R framework, proposed by David Wiley, and it defines the major characteristics of "open" content.
Retain - the right to make, own, and control copies of the content
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)
Revise - the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g. translate the content into another language)
Remix - the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new (e.g. incorporate the content into a mashup)
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)
This material was created by David Wiley and published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license
Image Attribution: Jonathasmello, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Where to go for further information on OERs
