OER for Arts and Sciences

What are Open Educational Resources (OER)? from https://www.cccoer.org/learn/

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials that are either (a) in the public domain or (b) licensed in a manner that provides everyone with free and perpetual permission to engage in the 5R activities.

The 5R Activities of full OER

An open license permits users of a resource to participate in the 5R activities of OER:

• Retain:  Make, own, and control your own copy of the content
• Reuse:   Use the content as-is
• Revise:  Adapt, adjust, modify, improve, or alter the content
• Remix:  Combine the original or revised content with other OER to create something new
• Redistribute:  Share your copies of the original content, revisions or remixes with others

5R Definition is an adaptation of Defining the “Open” in Open Content and Open Educational Resources, which was originally written by David Wiley and published freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license at http://opencontent.org/definition/.

Selected articles and resources on OER and Open Education

• Open educational resources, student efficacy, and user perceptions: a synthesis of research published between 2015 and 2018 | Educational technology research and development (springer.com)

“Results across these studies suggest students achieve the same or better learning outcomes when using OER while saving significant amounts of money. The results also indicate that the majority of faculty and students who have used OER had a positive experience and would do so again.”

• OER at scale: The academic and economic outcomes of the OER Degree Initiative - Achieving the Dream

"Community college students taking multiple OER courses earned more credits and similar grades than students who took no OER courses and reported high engagement with course materials; effort saved students $10.7 million and was cost-effective for colleges."

• Leveraging Open Educational Resources to Advance Diversity,… | AAC&U (aacu.org)

"Adopting open educational resources, or OER, can be an effective strategy for meeting campus equity goals. In addition to saving students (and institutions) money, making free educational materials available for faculty and students to use, customize, and share can level the academic playing field, narrow performance gaps, and reduce failure and withdrawal rates."