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Open educational resources aim to increase the world’s access to knowledge through open textbooks and reusable, openly-licensed components. Examples of OER include textbooks, full courses, course modules, lectures, homework assignments, classroom activities, pedagogical materials and more. Thousands of open textbooks already exist, and more are being developed including by Oregon State University faculty.

A resource becomes “open” when its copyright-holder grants usage rights to the public through an open license, which typically includes the right to access, reformat and customize it at no additional cost.

Here are a few of the benefits of using OER in your course:

• All your students will have access to the course materials on the first day of class.
• Using OER can help save students significant amounts of money.
• You have control over the content. You can combine, edit and reuse content in a way that works best for you.

You can learn more about OER in a variety of ways:

• Attend a workshop hosted by Oregon State’s Open Educational Resources Unit
• Browse the OERU archive of webinar recordings
• Join us for Open Education Week
• Contact OERU director Stefanie Buck for more information