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).

"OER are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge." (Hewlett Foundation)

• Wikipedia: Massive Open Online Course
• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

• OASIS

  "Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 57 different sources and contains 159,459 records."

• What Are the Impacts of Adopting OER?

  From Lumen Learning -- check the calculator to see how OER can increase student success!

• Houston Community College's OER Hub

  Houston Community College has been active in OER since the early 2010s and launched its Z-Degree Program in 2017, offering Zero Cost Books degree pathways for students pursuing three degree plans. Today, the OER initiative lives within a broader Textbook Savings Program that is providing students with affordable textbook options to reduce barriers to education.
  The OER TX HCC Hub will provide a space for faculty to find and share resources that they have created, used, or may use in their courses. This effort will reduce barriers for faculty to adopt OER, increasing adoption, use, and creation of OER. Together, we can do more to eliminate barriers to student learning. For more information about HCC's Z-Degree and OER Program go here.

OER Success starts here.

• CCCOER Webinars

  Discover how other community colleges are adopting and creating OER via 20 minute webinars.

• EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative

  "7 Things You Should Know About Open Educational Resources"

• Free to Learn Guide by Hal Plotkin

  An Open Educational Resources Policy Development
  Guidebook for Community College Governance Officials

• Guidelines for open educational resources (OER) in higher education

  "Given the potential of OER to improve higher education systems, UNESCO and the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) have developed these Guidelines, after broad consultations with stakeholders in all regions of the world, to support governments, higher education institutions/providers, academic staff, student bodies and quality assurance/accreditation and recognition bodies."

• OER Handbook for Educators

  "Welcome to the world of Open Educational Resources (OER). This handbook is designed to help educators find, use, develop and share OER to enhance their effectiveness online and in the classroom."

• Open Learning

  Online journal of open distance and e-learning.

• Open Professionals Education Network (OPEN) Videos and Handouts

  This collection of resources helps explain the services available to TAACCCT grantees from OPEN in relation to meeting requirements for deliverables. Other support material is also listed below, including guides for best practices when marking content, OER management, and for universal design for learning and accessibility.

• Open Textbook Proof-of-Concept via Connexions

  Baker, J., Thierstein, J., Fletcher, K., Kaur, M., & Emmons, J. (2009). Open Textbook Proof-of-Concept via Connexions. The International Review Of Research In Open And Distance Learning, 10(5). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/633/1390

• Open Textbooks: Why? What? How? When?

  Paper from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

• The roles of libraries and information professionals in Open Educational Resources (OER) initiatives

  This paper discusses awareness about Open Educational Resources (OER), the level of integration with library resources.

• Getting Started with OER

  Explore the various aspects of OER Commons and start curating.

• OER Workflow Courtesy of Elaine Farrally-Plourde. OER Workflow is a derivative of “OER Workflow Diagram" by Lisa Rogers and is licensed under CC BY-NC 1.0

• OER FAQ

  "This FAQ was developed by Hunter Cato, Jane Sandberg, and Michaela Willi Hooper, Linn-Benton Community College; Sergio Lopez, Mt Hood Community College; Jen Klaudinyi and Amanda Bird, Portland Community College; Meggie Wright, Lane Community College; Sue Kunda, Western Oregon University; Kerry Leek, Clackamas Community College; Scott Miller; and Amy Hofer, Open Oregon Educational Resources."

• OER Starter Kit

  "This starter kit has been created to provide instructors with an introduction to the use and creation of open educational resources (OER). The text is broken into five sections: Getting Started, Copyright, Finding OER, Teaching with OER, and Creating OER. Each chapter is accompanied with learning objectives and most chapters feature interactive elements and opportunities for readers to engage with the text. Although some chapters contain more advanced content, the starter kit is primarily intended for users who are entirely new to Open Education."

• OER Starter Kit Workbook

  The OER Starter Kit Workbook is a remix of the OER Starter Kit to include worksheets to help instructors practice the skills they need to confidently find, use, or even create open educational resources (OER).

• Open Canvas Courses

  Choose from over 580 open courses hosted on the Canvas LMS.

• W3C: OER Schema Community Group

  "Our mission is to develop a universal RDF vocabulary to enhance open educational resources throughout the internet."