Affordable Course Materials: Open Educational Resources (OER)

“Open Educational Resources are teaching, learning and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.” The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

In order for educational materials to be considered OER they must be licensed to allow the following:

• Retain - permission to make, own, and control copies of the content
• Reuse - permission to use the content in a wide range of ways
• Revise - permission to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself
• Remix - permission to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new
• Redistribute - permission to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others

David Wiley

Creative Commons Licenses are a common way to signal which permissions the creator of an OER grants to users. More information about CC licensing available here.