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OER

Overview of OER

Overview

Brazosport College students require support with budgeting their school expenses and instructional staff can assist in this effort through free/low cost course resources. To assist in this effort, the BC Library prepared this OER guide to help our instructors integrate OER items into the curriculum. The resources in this LibGuide represent just a sampling of what might be available in your discipline or specific information need.  We invite interested individuals or departments to meet with us to discuss OER possibilities. Schedule a F2F or Zoom OER consultation with Brent Cooper.

OER Defined

Open educational resources (OER) refers to educational resource materials for teaching and learning that can be utilized by instructors and students for free. These resources are typically published without a traditional copyright so that instructors and students of any institution can use the materials in multiple ways and over multiple distributions without paying to do so.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education- found on Credo

The "O" in OER

Defining the "Open" in Open Content
and Open Educational Resources

The terms "open content" and "open educational resources" describe any copyrightable work (traditionally excluding software, which is described by other terms like "open source") that is either (1) in the public domain or (2) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities:

  1. Retain - make, own, and control a copy of the resource (e.g., download and keep 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 to create something new (e.g., make a mashup)
  4. Reuse - use your original, revised, or remixed copy of the resource publicly (e.g., on a website, in a presentation, 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 or give one to a friend)

Defining the "Open" in Open Content and Open Educational Resources was written by David Wiley and published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license at http://opencontent.org/definition/.