Research Guides: Open Educational Resources (OER): OER: More Info

Openly Available Educational Materials

OER materials are either in the public domain or have been licensed for reuse and, sometimes, remixing and redistribution.

Publishers of open coursework, including textbooks, are generally supported by academic institutions and philanthropic foundations, and those who write them do so with the express purpose of making the materials freely available for use by other professors and students. This way, not only is the material available for anyone who needs it, but it's also easier to continually update and improve the information available within.

The Code of Best Practices below also explains how educators can use certain materials under copyright for educational purposes as OER.

Licenses

Creative Commons
Open materials use Creative Commons licenses to establish what users can and cannot do. Learn more about the process and the types of license available.
Creative Commons: Share Your Work
More on Creative Commons licenses, what they do and which one will suit your needs.

Best Practices

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Open Educational Resources (American University Washington College of Law and NC State University Libraries)
"This Code is a tool for educators, librarians, and authors to evaluate common professional scenarios in which fair use can enable them to incorporate inserts, including those protected by copyright, to create OER. It can provide groups working on OER projects with a shared framework for evaluating and understanding when and how to incorporate existing content to meet pedagogical needs."
Version 1.0 published February 2021.

"Inclusive Access": Not Open

InclusiveAccess.org: The Facts on Automatic Billing (Creative Commons et al)
This website from partners including Creative Commons, SPARC, Student PIRGs and more, gives faculty, administrators and students information about the textbook billing program known as Inclusive Access, which publishers claim is a more accessible means of paying for textbooks but which has a number of downsides.

OER Policies Here & Abroad

USA

Open Textbooks Pilot Program (U.S. Department of Education)
A grant program from the Department of Education that "supports projects at eligible institutions of higher education that create new open textbooks and expand the use of open textbooks in courses that are part of a degree-granting program, particularly those with high enrollments."
OER State Policy Playbook (SPARC)
"The OER State Policy Playbook provides policy recommendations for U.S. state legislators interested in tackling college affordability through Open Educational Resources (OER)."
OER State Policy Tracker (SPARC)
SPARC tracks the current workings of state legislatures on the issue of OER, "[u]pdated weekly during the legislative season."

International

OER World Map: OER Policy Registry
A repository of OER policies around the world, collected by the OER World Map project.

OER News

The Open Access Tracking Project (part of the Harvard Open Access Project) follows many areas of open access, including OER.

This is a feed of articles tagged OER.

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Openly Available Educational Materials

OER materials are either in the public domain or have been licensed for reuse and, sometimes, remixing and redistribution.

Licenses

Best Practices

"Inclusive Access": Not Open

OER Policies Here & Abroad

USA

International

OER News

The Open Access Tracking Project (part of the Harvard Open Access Project) follows many areas of open access, including OER.

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