Skip to Main Content

OER: Using Open Education Resources

 

Evaluating OER

Sample rubrics for evaluating Open Educational Resources:

Understanding Licensing

The Creative Commons license is the most commonly used license for OER. Open licenses allow for the OER content to be used in the following ways (known as the "5 Rs")

  • Retain: the right to make, own, and control copies of the cotent
  • Reuse: use the content in a variety of ways (in a class, on a website, etc.)
  • Revise: the right to adapt, adjust, modify or alter the content
  • Remix: the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (in a mashup, for example)
  • Redistribute: the right to share copies of the original, revised or remixed content


Look for the Creative Commons license to understand how an Open Educational Resource may be used. Some helpful resources for decoding Creative Commons Licenses:


Modifying OER

Modifying an Open Textbook: What You Need To Know  - helpful resource for reformatting OER, how to modify PDF, etc. 


Creating OER

The OER Creation Toolkit provides an introduction to the use and creation of OER. The text is broken into sections: getting started with OER, copyright, finding OER, teaching with OER, and creating OER.

Pressbooks User Guide - provides answers to common questions about writing and publishing with Pressbooks Create.