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Open Educational Resources (OER): OER Overview

                           What Are Open Educational Resources?

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The Middlesex Community College Library is here to help you find free and low-cost resources for your students. Feel free to reach out to us with any questions you have about finding, creating, or adapting OER.

Email us:
mcclibrary@middlesex.edu

Call us:
781-280-3705 (Bedford) 
978-656-3005 (Lowell)

This video from the University of Alberta provides a quick overview of what open educational resources are and the benefits of using them in the classroom.

"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."
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

"Open Education encompasses resources, tools and practices that are free of legal, financial and technical barriers and can be fully used, shared and adapted in the digital environment."

-- SPARC

Open Educational Resources (OER) are more than just textbooks. They include syllabi and content modules, assignments, labs, image and video galleries, and other ancillary teaching and learning resources that are in the public domain or have a license (like a Creative Commons license) that allows them to be re-used, re-shared, and remixed for free.

 

retain, revise, remix, reuse, redistribute

The 5 R's of OER:

1. Retain - make, own, and control a copy of the resource (e.g., download your own copy)

2. Revise - edit, adapt, and modify your copy of the resource (e.g., translate into another language)

3. Remix - combine your original or revised copy of the resource with other existing material(s) to create something new (e.g., make a mashup)

4. Reuse - use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g., in a class)

5. Redistribute - share copies of your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource with others (e.g., post a copy online to share with class)

This material is an adaptation of Defining the "Open" in Open Content and Open Educational Resources, which was originally written by David Wiley and published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.