2. What are Open
Educational Resources?
"teaching, learning and research materials in any
medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public
domain or have been released under an open license
that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and
redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.“
- UNESCO
3. Examples of OER
Resources Released
under Open License
Images
Videos
Artwork
Textbooks
Courses & modules
And many other
materials…
Resources in the
Public Domain
Materials published
before 1923 or those
with expired copyrights
Materials that were
never copyrighted
Materials donated to
the public domain
Government
documents
4. Benefits
Can reduce education costs for students by
using free material.
Encourages sharing of ideas among
communities of learning around the world.
May help reduce labor for instructors by having
ready-made supplementary materials.
Many resources may be customizable to
instructor or student purposes.
All people around the world (not just students)
have better access to knowledge and
information.
5. Challenges
It can be difficult to wade through the wealth
of material available to find appropriate
material.
Conversely, it may impossible to find material
in a specific subject area.
The quality of content is not guaranteed and
must be assessed by the user.
Not everyone has easy access to technology.
The economic sustainability of OER is unclear.