Open Educational Resources (OER): Introduction to OER

OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge (The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation).

OER include:

• full courses,
• course materials,
• modules,
• textbooks,
• streaming videos,
• tests,
• software,
• and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.

The worldwide OER movement is rooted in the human right to access high-quality education.

This shift in educational practice is not just about cost savings and easy access to openly licensed content; it’s about participation and co-creation. Open Educational Resources (OER) offer opportunities for systemic change in teaching and learning content through engaging educators in new participatory processes and effective technologies for engaging with learning (https://oercommons.org/about).