5.5 Open Educational Resources

You don’t need to create all of your course content from scratch. Open Educational Resources (OER) are “teaching, learning, and research resources that are free of cost and access barriers, and which also carry legal permission for open use. Generally, this reuse permission is granted by use of an open license (for example, a Creative Commons license Links to an external site.) which allows anyone to freely use, adapt and share the resource—anytime, anywhere” (SPARC Links to an external site., n.d). You may have noticed we have been using OER throughout this module.

OER covers a wide range of online formats, including online textbooks, video-recorded lectures, YouTube* clips, web-based textual materials designed for independent study, animations, simulations, digital diagrams, graphics, some Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and even assessment materials such as tests with automated marking. OER can also include Powerpoint slides or pdf files of lecture notes. In order to be open educational resources, though, they must be openly licensed or in the public domain. Please see the Open UBC Toolkit on Open Licensing for more information.

* Please note that students located in China will not be able to view YouTube clips as China blocks all access to YouTube.

Using OER is a great strategy for online course content because it:

• Saves you time and money.
  • No need to gain permission--or pay--to use, copy, or distribute OER.
  • Easy to circulate among an unlimited number of students.
    
    
• Save students time and money.
  • Online versions are free to students (and instructors).
  • No access code is needed.
  • There is no expiration date.
    
    
• Makes it easy for instructors to provide meaningful, contextualized resources for their students.
  • Content can be used, edited, or adapted without fear of copyright infringement.
  • You can change content to suit student needs, teaching method, and curriculum.
  • Everyone can be included in content additions, updates, and improvements.
  • OER can be used as an agent of change for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

There are millions of open resources available to use in courses and share with students. The UBC Library has created an in-depth guide on finding Open Educational Resources (OER).

While there are many sources included in this guide, you might start by searching for materials using the OER search tools and repositories listed here:

• Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) Links to an external site. is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 98 different sources Links to an external site. and contains 368,237 records.
  
  
• Mason OER Metafinder (MOM) Links to an external site. searches across 21 different sources of open educational materials. It searches well-known OER repositories like OpenStax Links to an external site., OER Commons Links to an external site., MERLOT Links to an external site. as well as other collections where valuable but often overlooked open educational materials may be found.
  
  
• The B.C. Open Textbook Collection Links to an external site. is a curated selection of open textbooks for a variety of subjects and specialties. Discover open textbooks that have been reviewed by faculty, meet our accessibility requirements, and/or include ancillary materials (quizzes, test banks, slides, videos, etc.).
  
  
• OER Commons Links to an external site. offers a comprehensive infrastructure for curriculum experts and instructors at all levels to identify high-quality OER and collaborate around their adaptation, evaluation, and use to address the needs of teachers and learners.
  
  
• PhET Interactive Simulations Links to an external site. a project at the University of Colorado Boulder which hosts and creates free available interactive math and science simulations.

When searching for OER, be sure to check to see whether or not the resource has a Creative Commons license or a statement giving permission for re-use.

Integrating OER into your course

Using one of the OER search tools or repositories listed above, search for a topic you address in your course. Identify one resource you think might be a good match for your online course and consider the following questions:

• Why do you think this is a good resource for your course?
• Is there anything you would modify or change to better fit the context of your course?
• Does the format provide a good complement or alternative to the other content you’re planning for your course?
• What is the copyright status or terms of the open license it is shared under?

This section draws from materials in Teaching in a Digital Age (Chapter 11)- Second Edition by Anthony William (Tony) Bates, the UBC Library Research Guide on Open Education, and The New Normal: Using OER to re-open education Links to an external site. by BCcampus, shared under a CC-BY license.