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Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials that are freely accessible and openly licensed. The aim of OERs is to allow users to adapt, share, or use materials with limited or no restrictions. The primary characteristics of OERs are:
The 5 Rs (Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix, Redistribute) is a common metric used to determine if material is "open":
These five considerations are important to evaluate whether material is OER or not. Not everything discoverable on the internet is free to use, open, or can be adapted.
OASIS - Search engine that allows users to search several OER repositories at once and has filters to search for materials based on type.
OER Commons - OER search engine with deep coverage.
Mason OER Metafinder - Metafinder / search engine developed by George Mason University and devoted to OER.
Creative Commons Search - Search engine for images, videos, and other multimedia that has been tagged as having a Creative Commons License.
Most common search engines (e.g. Google, Bing) have an advanced search feature to filter results based on copyright or usage rights.
OER textbooks exist for a variety of disciplines, and dedicated collections are hosted and searchable online.
BC Campus OpenEd - British Columbia's repository of quality OER Textbooks is frequently updated and contains texts for a variety of disciplines.
Open Textbook Library - Resource collection for OER Textbooks based out of the University of Minnesota.
OpenStax - OpenStax is a nonprofit educational initiative based at Rice University, with a collection of core OER Textbooks and other instructional resources (lecture slides, test banks, etc.).
Galileo Open Learning Materials - As part of the Affordable Learning Georgia initiative, the University System of Georgia has developed OER Textbooks in a variety of subjects.
LibreTexts - Resource collection for finding OER Textbooks in the STEM discipline areas.
Open Oregon - Initiative based in Oregon that includes select OER Textbook titles.
Open SUNY Textbook Library - Open SUNY (State University of New York) focuses on OER courses and also has a collection of OER Textbooks (Milne).
In addition to specific repositories focused on textbooks, there are repositories that can be used to find all types of OER:
OER Commons - One of the larger repositories of OER content; it focuses on a variety of disciplines.
MERLOT - Curated online library of OER that contains contributions from various academic institutions.
Skills Commons - Created by a federal grant, focuses on OER related to workforce training and industry.
Open Course Library - Started by the State of Washington's Community and Technical Colleges Consortium, it includes OER resources and low-cost alternative instructional materials.
The Orange Grove - Florida's Open Educational Resource Repository has texts, materials, and learning objects across various disciplines.
OER provides learners with financial and academic benefits in the areas of cost, retention and grades, and pedagogy and open educational practices.
Cost - Based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, textbook prices increased 88% between 2006 and 2016. However, ongoing efforts to encourage adoption of OER and affordable textbook alternatives are making an impact. According to research from the Association of American Publishers, average student spending on textbooks and course materials declined 41% between 2012 and 2023. Research from the College Board indicates that the average student budget for textbooks, course materials, and other related supplies in 2023-2024 was $1,470 at a public two-year institution of higher learning, and $1,250 for a public four-year institution of higher learning.
Retention and Grades - There is a positive impact on student retention and course grades. A large-scale study by the University of Georgia found that students in courses that used OER had grades that were 6.9% higher for non-Pell recipients; and 10.98% higher for Pell recipients. The study also found that fewer students in courses that used OERs received a D, F or Withdrew, when compared to courses that used traditional materials.
Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) studied the effects of high textbook costs on student course enrollment. In a student survey in 2020, 65% of students reported foregoing the purchase of an assigned textbook because of cost, and 90% of students reported being significantly or somewhat concerned by textbook costs.
These studies suggest that a student's academic performance and retention can be positively affected by their ability (at low or no cost) to begin a course with the textbook in hand.
OER Enabled Pedagogy and Open Educational Practices - OER Enabled Pedagogy is a term that describes the set of teaching and learning practices that can only exist when open materials (OER) are utilized. Materials with copyright restrictions restrict the ways in which students can learn from the materials. In essence, using OER materials allows for higher levels of learning, as students can revise/adapt/contribute to the learning materials themselves and demonstrate their mastery/knowledge in the subject.
OER often utilize Creative Commons Licenses because many of these licenses allow for materials to be reused, redistributed, modified, or altered. Works are generally protected by copyright as soon as they are created, which imposes restrictions on how the material can be used or shared. Copying and distributing copyright-protected material online is often illegal, although Fair Use and Classroom Use Exemptions provide some leeway for use of material in educational settings.
The elements of a Creative Commons License are:
These four elements combine to form the six different types of Creative Commons (CC) Licenses, listed here from most to least permissive:
OER Digest - A bi-weekly publication by SPARC that provides updates on open education and OER
Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources - A consortium of community colleges focused on expanding access to education and increasing student success through the implementation of OER, and open education
WCET - Part of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), WCET is a cooperative focused on educational technologies and OER
Student PIRGs Textbook Research - 20+ years of accumulated research on the textbook marketplace.
Association of American Publishers. (June 2023). Press Release: Student Watch Reports a 57% Decline in Student Spending on Course Materials over a Decade. https://publishers.org/news/student-watch-reports-a-57-decline-in-student-spending-on-course-materials-over-a-decade
Colvard, N., Watson, C., and Park H. (2018). The Impact of Open Educational Resources on Various Student Success Metrics. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 30(2). https://isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE3386.pdf
Ma, J. and Pender, M. (2023). Trends in Higher Education Series: Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid 2023. https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/Trends%20Report%202023%20Updated.pdf
Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center. (2019). Public Domain Overview. https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/public-domain/welcome
U.S. PIRG Education Fund. (2021). Fixing the Broken Textbook Market, Third Edition. https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/fixing-the-broken-textbook-market-third-edition/
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (August 2016). The Economics Daily: College tuition and fees increase 63 percent since January 2006. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2016/college-tuition-and-fees-increase-63-percent-since-january-2006.htm
Wiley, D. (n.d.). Defining the “Open” in Open Content and Open Educational Resources. https://opencontent.org/definition
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