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Open Educational Resources Guide

Welcome!

This guide includes key resources to help OHSU faculty learn about Open Educational Resources (OER), why they are important, and how to get started using them in courses.

What is an OER?

SPARC defines Open Education as “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."

  • OERs are freely available, with the ability to collaborate, alter, or remix to meet the needs of your course.

The 5R Permissions of OER

OER 5Rs graphic. Reuse: Content can be re-used in its unaltered form. Retain: Users have the right to make, archive, and "own" copies of the content. Revise: Content can be adapted, adjusted, modified or altered. Remix: The original or revised content can be combined with other content to create something new. Redistribute: copies of the content can be shared with others in its original, revised, or remixed form.

"Key Things to Know about Open Educational Resources (OER)" by BCOER Librarians is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Library Resources

The library provides institution-wide access to many textbooks and other materials that can be used in courses, which students would otherwise have to pay for individually. Incorporating library resources into your course is another way to lower costs for students, but they do have some limitations.

  • Many publishers will not sell or license electronic textbooks to libraries, or only allow a limited number of users to read simultaneously.
  • Most library resources are protected under traditional copyright, with limited ability to share, alter or remix.