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Open Educational Resources

Provides an overview of Open Educational Resources

What are OERs?

Open Educational Resources (OERs) 

  • are used for teaching, learning and research materials in any medium that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license
  • permit  re-use, adaption and modification of the materials
  • can include full courses, textbooks, streaming videos, exams, software, and any other materials or techniques supporting learning. 

 

Benefits of OERs

The reduction in costs for students is a major benefit of OERs but they're also much more flexible than commercial textbooks.

Advantages of OERs include:

  • Immediate and continued access: Students can access OERs anywhere in the world, at any time. This includes both before courses start and after courses end.
  • Enhancement of regular course content: You can use different types of materials, including multimedia, to help engage students. OERs can be useful supplementary material when students need background information or are interested in extending their knowledge.  
  • Adaptability: You can add, remove and edit content to suit your needs. If you're using an OER textbook you don't need to worry about using the whole book to justify the cost to students.   
  • Increased diversity: You can use a selection of resources to include a wide range of perspectives, such as Indigenous voices, and/or edit resources to ensure language is inclusive and relevant to your students.    
  • Continual improvement: OERs can be quickly improved through direct editing or via feedback and any mistakes can be corrected  without needing to wait for a new edition or going through a lengthy review process.   

Text courtesy of University of Adelaide