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Seneca Libraries Staff Guide to Open Educational Resources: OERs

OER

What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?

"Open Educational Resources (OERs) are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt and re-share them. OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation" (UNESCO, 2017).

A Creative Commons Licence and a GNU General Public Licence are examples of open licences.

OER Can Be: Full courses, learning objects, tests or any other tools, materials, or techniques for use in teaching, learning, and research.

Course Material

Open Textbooks

Videos

Lesson Plans

Software

Games

"OER Can Be" is a derivative of the BCOER Poster - opens in a new window, by BCcampus, - opens in a new window licensed under CC BY 4.0 - opens in a new window

The 5 R Permissions of OER

The “5 Rs” is a framework that encourages educators to capitalize on the unique rights associated with open content. These rights include the ability to:

  • Retain Make and own copies of the work (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
  • Reuse Use the work in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
  • Revise Adapt, modify and translate the work (e.g., translate the content into another language)
  • Remix Combine it with another resource to make a new work (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
  • Redistribute Share the work with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

These rights, or permissions, are made possible through open licensing. For example, Creative Commons open licences help creators of OER retain copyright while allowing others to reproduce, distribute, and make some uses of their work.

 

"The 5 Rs of OER" is a derivative of the 5 R Permissions of OER - opens in a new window,by Lumen Learning, - opens in a new window licensed under CC BY 4.0

 

Through open licensing, the mission of the OER movement is to encourage the full range of the “5 Rs” permissions of use (see prior tab). Some argue that unless an open licence allows for adaptations, then the resource is not truly OER.

                               

 

Web-based resources that are fully copyrighted are not considered OER because they do not allow for Reuse, Revision, Remix, or Redistribution.

 

                         

 Open Access resources are often introduced with a licence that does allow for Reuse and Redistribution, however they are generally not considered OER because they typically do not allow for Revision or Remix.

                                      

 Resources that cannot be adapted are not considered OER because they do not allow for Revision or Remix.

                                  

 Subscription-based Library Collections are generally not considered OER because their use may be restricted by licence agreements.

 

The image below positions Creative Commons Licenses - Opens in a new window on a spectrum from more to less open. As depicted, resources that are licensed ND (No Derivatives), are in some cases considered not to be OER.

The six creative image. Description: Six Creative Commons Licenses on a spectrum from more to less open. From top to bottom, the most open to not open: 1. CC BY, 2. CC BY SA, 3. CC BY NC, 4. CC BY NC SA, 5. BB BY ND (not open), 6. CC BY NC ND

 

"What's not OER" is a derivative of The OER Toolkit for Faculty - About. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License - Open in a new window.

"The Six Creative Commons Licences" image is a derivative of an image in Keynote Slides (November 2014) - Opens in a new window, by Cable Green, licensed under CC BY 4.0 - opens in a new window.

Why OER Matters to Teaching and Learning

Benefits for faculty:

  • Increases student retention by reducing costs
  • Assures academic freedom to modify or add content to your specifications
  • Extends your academic profile
  • Provides more relevant and engaging materials for your students

Benefits for students:

  • Low cost or free
  • Easy to find and access -- even before classes start
  • More customised and relevant

 

Why OER Matters to Libraries

  • Supports the library's effort to provide more relevant and engaging materials for students
  • Enables the role of library staff as collaborators on instructional design through their expertise in finding quality materials and knowledge of open licensing affordances
  • Expands the curatorial role of the library through enhanced opportunities for describing and organizing content
  • Provides a mechanism to bridge the gap between historical library curation practices and the benefits of 21st century technologies

"Benefits for faculty and students" is a modified derivative from the poster “BCOER” - Opens in a new window by BCcampus and is licensed under CC BY 4.0

"Why OER Matters to Libraries" is from The OER Toolkit for Faculty - About. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License - Open in a new window.

 

Unless otherwise specified, all resources on the Seneca Libraries Staff Guide to Open Educational Resources are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

                              
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.