Open Educational Resources (OERs) are openly licensed, freely available materials - typically found online - that can be used for educational purposes. These provide instructors with the opportunity to create flexible course content that can be easily integrated into D2L while reducing costs for students.
Open Access differs slightly from Open Educational Resources in that it refers specifically to a publishing model, rather than to a specific type of resource.
Since 1977, textbook costs have risen 1,041%. On average, a student at HCC pays $1,050 on textbooks each year, which on our campus is the equivalent of two 3-credit courses.
Adopting OER in the classroom in place of traditionally published textbooks reduces the cost of higher education for students; OER adoption at HCC has resulted in over $300,000 in savings for students from Fall 2017 - Fall 2020.
In some cases, adopting OER can even increase student engagement in the classroom. A recent survey of students found that 60% of students choose not to purchase a textbook due to the cost. A further 40% responded that they have chosen not to take a class because of the anticipated textbook costs. Again, 30% of students reported doing poorly in a class because of the textbook cost and 20% reported that they had failed a class for those same reasons.
OER also offer faculty with a rare opportunity for flexible teaching in the classroom - the open licenses used on OERs provide faculty with the option to customize their course using a variety of resources, rather than conforming their course to the rigidity of a single textbook. OER can also be easily integrated into Learning Management Systems like D2L.
You should be assessing open textbooks against criteria that reflects your teaching experience and knowledge of student needs. Additional criteria to consider when selecting an open textbook or OER include:
(1) Content - accuracy of materials, depth, breadth, richness, timeliness, and cultural needs
(2) Presentation - writing quality and tone, reading level, visual presentation, supplemental materials, hierarchy of information.
Source: Open Textbook Adoption from OpenStax
"A Review of the Effectiveness & Perceptions of Open Educational Resources As Compared to Textbooks" created by Research Shorts, CC-BY
OERs grant users five permissions that are typically reserved for creators under standard copyright law. Users must remember to abide by the terms of the CC License when exercising these rights.
* Note that the CC Licenses of the works being combined must be compatible. If you wish to combine two CC Licensed works and are unsure of whether the licenses are compatible, please contact your campus or state Copyright expert
Creative Commons Licenses are Copyright Licenses that help creators retain copyright while allowing others to copy, distribute, and make some uses of their work.
These are the licenses that are typically used on Open Educational Resources. While CC Licenses are copyright licenses, they are much more permissive than the standard "All Rights Reserved" copyright that we are so accustomed to seeing. Each Creative Commons Licensor chooses the rights that they wish to retain and the permissions that they wish to grant to users of their works.
These choices boil down to the six Creative Commons (CC) Licenses that exist today. These can be recognized by the CC License symbols & abbreviations displayed on each of the following tabs, each of which denotes a specific set of terms under which the resource can be used. Open Educational Resources can often be recognized by the Creative Commons Licenses that they use, as it is often these licenses that make these resources "open".
To learn more about Creative Commons and its licenses, visit creativecommons.org.
Since OERs are typically digital, the best place to look is online. If you're just getting started, you may want to forgo a Google Search and start looking in well known OER Repositories (listed at the bottom of this page in the OER Collections box). Some of the most common starting places for faculty are the Open Textbook Library, Lumen Learning, and OpenStax.
As OER become more popular, more powerful search tools are being developed. The Mason OER Metafinder (the MOM) and OASIS are two such search engines. These two resources search across a variety of known OER repositories, presenting results from multiple locations in one convenient place.
College and University LibGuides are another great place to look for discipline-specific resources. Librarians take great care in selecting resources that they think best suit the needs of their faculty.
And, of course, when you feel comfortable in your ability to find and recognize OER, Google Searching is always a viable option. Combine subject-specific search terms with recommended OER search terms to get started. Remember when browsing online to always check the license, terms, and conditions associated with a resource to be sure that it is OER!
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 72 different sources and contains 165,592 records.
Recommended Search Terms:
Combine these or other terms with your subject-based terms
A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources (OER) by 
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OER: A Field Guide for Academic Librarians by 
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Open Research by This link opens in a new window
Open at the Margins by This link opens in a new window
Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy by 
This link opens in a new windowA Member of Minnesota State