OER: Open Educational Resources: Introduction

Are you considering incorporating open resources into your course to save students money and improve teaching and learning?  First on this page, you will find tips for finding Open Educational Resources for your classes.

Once you've found the right resource, you may want to make modifications to suit your particular class! Look below for a helpful guide for modifying Open Textbooks and OER, including examples from several common formats. 

This video presentation was created by Amy Hofer for Open Oregon.  OER Basics: Created by iconsmind.com from the Noun Project

There are many reasons instructors might want to use OER:

Free and Legal to Use, Improve and Share

• Save time and energy by adapting or revising resources that have already been created 
• Tailor educational resources to the specific content for your course
• Expand opportunities for interdisciplinary teaching and learning by allowing you to integrate and revise multiple educational resources
• Redefine "traditional" learning by incorporating multi-media or scenario-based education
• Go beyond the confines of "teaching to the book"

Network and Collaborate with Peers

• Access educational resources that have already been "peer-reviewed" by other experts in your field
• Review or annotation features and texts so other instructors have more in-depth knowledge of the resource and its quality quickly
• Make learning and teaching a team project using collaborative platforms

Lower Educational Cost and Improve Access to Information

• Reduce the cost of course materials, particularly textbooks so that all students have access and aren't as financially burdened
• Find and access information instantly on virtually any topic, on various devices
• Give learners the option of looking at course content openly before enrolling
• Reduce the load students bear, possibly increasing graduation and retention rates