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Open Educational Resources (OERs): What are OERs?

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What are OERs

What are OERs?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost, and without needing to ask permission. Unlike copyrighted resources, OER have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights.

In some cases, that means you can download a resource and share it with colleagues and students. In other cases, you may be able to download a resource, edit it in some way, and then re-post it as a remixed work. How do you know your options? OER often have a Creative Commons license or other permission to let you know how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared.

You can use OER to supplement (or even replace) traditional educational resources.

Some examples of OER are:

  • Textbooks                                                                      
  • Lecture Slides
  • Podcasts
  • Online courses
  • Videos 
  • Quizzes

This guide provides some information on how to use OER, why use OER, and where to find OER. 

 

About this Guide

This guide has been developed as part of a Learning Enhancement Project Type 2 Initiative awarded to Celine Peignen, Deputy Librarian, TUS Library Midlands from the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education.

CC attribution Open Educational Resources National Forum Funded LEP

Resources were developed with the help of Niamh O'Brien (as part of the requirement of Service Learning Module) and Saoirse Reynolds, Senior Library Assistant, Technical Services and Collection Development, TUS Library Midalnds.

Creative Commons License
AIT Library OER libguide by AIT Library is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.