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Open Educational Resources (OER): Introduction

This guide provides information on what OERs are and where you can find them.

What are OER?

“OER are teaching, learning and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under intellectual property license that permits their free use and repurposing by others.” 
                ~ The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Open educational resources include: 
  • Full courses
  • Course materials
  • Modules
  • Textbooks
  • Streaming videos
  • Tests
  • Software

OER Benefits

  • Affordability 
    • students appreciate the potentially significant cost savings associated with using OER materials in place of traditional textbooks.
  • Diversity
    • students can gain better perspective on a topic by using multiple sources rather than one text.
  • Flexibility
    • OER can be revised and remixed to meet specific course goals.
  • Academic performance
    • several case studies have shown no significant difference in student performance when using OER instead of traditional textbooks. Usually the results are favorable to OER.
    • supports student success, since they have equal and immediate access.
  • Usability
    • students can choose to access OER materials on a variety of devices and locations.
  • Up-to-date content
    • OER can be edited and updated more quickly than traditional textbooks.
  • Adaptability
    • professors can re-use and re-purpose material.

*Note: This information was reused and adapted from the East Stroudsburg University Kemp Library.

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