Open Educational Resources

We hope you find this guide helpful in learning more about openly licensed teaching materials. Faculty can use this guide to get started with finding textbooks, images, syllabi, and more that can be adopted or adapted for use in the classroom. Educators may also consider authoring their teaching resources to support their classroom instruction, and to share with others in their discipline. Students may find this guide useful for getting acquainted with the basics of OER and looking at resources that are available for free.

Thank you to UMass Amherst Library for permission to use and modify their OER guide. 

Why OER?

Educators and learners as well as learning institutions are driving its development. OER provides an alternative to the rising costs of education. It provides day-one access to required reading and doesn't involve access codes or delivery delays. OER provides an opportunity to try new ways of teaching and learning, many of which are more collaborative and immersive.

Benefits of OER

1. Increased Student Retention (Zao, Satyanarayana, and Cooney 2020)
2. Improved Student Performance (Colvard, Watson, et al. 2018)
3. Increased diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Lapum, Bailey, et al 2022)
4. Affordability (NBC's review of Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data)
5. Faculty can customize course materials to their preferences and needs of the course (see permissions of (Creative Commons Licenses)
6. Students maintain access to their materials beyond the class instead of renting or licensing temporarily

Below are several resources that might be useful to the instructor who would like to know more about the open education movement and how to teach with open education resources.

An Open Education Reader

This is a collection of readings on open education with commentary created for a graduate course at Brigham Young University and edited by David Wiley. It includes chapters on intellectual property, free software, open source, open content, open textbooks, and research in open education.

The Open Education Handbook

This handbook is a deliverable of the LinkedUp Project, and is a primer on the open education ecosystem, information about useful tools and software, references, a glossary of commonly used terms, case studies and examples, and answers to frequently asked questions. 

An Examination of the Lived Experience of Eleven Educators Who Have Implemented Open Textbooks in Their Teaching

A masters thesis by Danielle Paradis out of Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC. Of particular interest is Chapter 4, Results. It includes quotes from teachers on how they found out about OERs, their experience teaching with them, and motivations behind use. 

Making the Most of Open Educational Resources 

A series of videos by Contact North