Accessing Open Educational Resources

While Open Educational Resources (OERs) can take on many forms, including assignments, videos, and articles, open textbooks have provided students with more affordable options for accessing and purchasing required course materials.

A recent study completed by the University of Georgia on the use of OER textbooks in larger, general education courses revealed several benefits to adopting OER textbooks. In addition to reduced textbooks cost for the student, the use of OERs in the general education curriculum resulted in improved student performance on end-of-term grades (Colvard, Watson, & Park, 2018).

With many faculty concerned with the comprehensiveness of learning resources and rising textbook costs, OERs can be an alternative resource option for faculty building or revising courses (Seaman & Seaman, 2017).

OERS can also provide faculty with the opportunity to use or revise existing, often peer-reviewed, content as part of their own course materials. Using OERs allows faculty to be more effective with their time during the course development process by using material that already exists and has been used by other faculty in their own classrooms.

There is an increasing need to provide students with affordable textbook options, but there is still concern over the quality of OERs and how to integrate them into courses. To address this concern, organizations offering OERs often encourage users to leave feedback on the quality of the material. According to a recent report on OERs and open textbooks, a majority (56%) of faculty interviewed reported that they were not familiar with OERs, while only 10% reported that they were aware of OERs and how they can be used as learning resources (Seaman & Seaman, 2017). With a better understanding of OERs, faculty may find identifying, adapting, and creating OERs an alternative to expensive textbooks and course materials.

OERs are often created using a Creative Commons License, allowing authors to protect or share their work with others. Websites dedicated to the sharing of OERs are available and can help faculty determine what materials are freely available to use. Another way to determine if an OER or materials is available for use is by assessing the Creative Commons Licensing for the work. Creative Commons Licensing can give others permission and instruction on how their creative work can be used. While there are different ways faculty can adapt or use OERs, Creative Commons (n.d.) provides descriptions for each of the licensing types to help faculty in identifying OERs for classroom use:

Attribution (by): The author of the work can indicate how users can attribute or give credit to the author when using the material. Attribution does not mean that the author endorses how the work is used. If users of the work do not want to give the author credit or indicate endorsement of the use of the work, the user must request permission from the author to use the material.

ShareAlike (sa): This license type allows users to “copy, distribute, display, perform, or modify” an author’s work only if the user shares the modified work using the same license used by the original author. Users must seek permission from the original author if they plan to distribute modified content using a different license.

NonCommercial (nc): Users are able to “copy, distribute, display, perform, and modify” the content for any use that is not commercial. Should the user want to use the resource for commercial purposes, the user must seek permission from the original author.

NoDerivatives (nd): Users can “copy, distribute, display and perform” your work, but must request permission from the author if they plan to modify it.

Once an OER has been identified, and the licensing for the work has been reviewed, David Wiley (n.d.) suggests using the (5Rs) to adapt OERs for classroom use. These strategies provide further explanation on how OERs can be modified and redistributed based on the Creative Commons Licensing:

• Retain: Users can create, own, and keep copies of the author’s work.
• Reuse: Users can use the author’s work in various ways in a classroom, on a website, etc.
• Revise: Users can adapt, modify, or change the author’s work.
• Remix: Users can use the author’s work and combine it with other content to create a new work.
• Redistribute: Users can share copies of the original, revised, or remixed work with others.

If you have any questions about copyright with relation to use and dissemination of any OER, please contact your department or university library, where somebody on staff will be able to assist you.

The following is an initial list of websites that host OER content and textbooks. These are some of the more widely used sites to search for OERs. Explore the following sites to identify, create, or revise OERs for use in the classroom.

MERLOT: Search for course material by discipline or create your own using the tools provided by MERLOT.

MIT OpenCourseware: Explore course content, assignments, available publicly for educators.

Openstax: Review peer-reviewed textbooks, instructor resources, and materials offered in a variety of subjects.

Open Textbook Library: Open textbooks available for adoption and adaptation by faculty.

One-stop-shop for OERs: An extensive list of available OER sites faculty can use to find images, videos, course materials, and textbooks.

If you have created content that you would like to make available to others, and not sure which license is appropriate for your work, use the Creative Commons licensing tool and generate your license.

If you have found OERs you would like to use or remix, and want to create one single Creative Commons License, use Creative Commons License Compatibility Wizards to create one single Creative Commons License for blending or remixing OERS.

Colvard, N. B., Watson, C. E., & Park, H. (2018). The impact of open educational resources on various student success metrics. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 30(2), 262-276.

Creative Commons. (n.d.). About CC licenses.

Seaman, J.E. & J. Seaman. (2017). Opening the textbook: Educational resources in U.S. Higher Education, 2017. Babsun Survey Research Group.

Wiley, D. (n.d.). Open content.