Open Educational Resources (OER)
Open Educational Resources (OER) are “teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium that reside in the public domain or that have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation, and redistribution by others” (EDUCAUSE, 2018).
OER can be in the form of the following types of content and more:
- Textbooks
- Images
- Videos
- Simulations
- Activities
- Assessments
- Audio
Even if you’re not creating and maintaining your own open educational content, the curation and adoption of OER may require a significant investment of time. However, the benefits to OER in terms of adaptability, cost, and flexibility may outweigh the downsides. You can keep and reuse OER content, and it can be customized to match your course outcomes and learning context.
The details the definition and benefits to OER; the steps to finding, adapting, and creating OER; and supports available at Dalhousie.