Open Educational Resources (OERs), are educational materials which are licensed in ways that provide permissions for individuals and institutions to reuse, adapt and modify the materials for their own use. OERs might include textbooks or entire courses as well as streaming videos, exams, software, and any other materials or techniques supporting learning.
The OER Foundation uses Creative Commons licenses which are approved by the Free Cultural Works Definition. These licenses afford permissions to reuse and modify educational materials on condition that the original copyright owners are properly attributed. The OER Foundation uses the Creative Commons Attribution License or the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License for its OER. (OER foundation website)
Why Open Education Resources?
A 2014 Study by the US Public Interest Research Group showed:
Your Liaison Librarian can help you with some of these questions.
Once you have chosen an open education resource you should check your links regularly to see that it is still available.
Something qualifies as an Open Educational Resource if it can be:
Check your resource by reading any associated Creative Commons License and learning what rights you have in relation to the learning object.
Find more at the OEL Toolkit, a joint project of Swinburne University and University of Tasmania.