Sites
Open book
Collection

What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?

Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning and teaching materials that are licensed for free and adaptable use. These resources provide a foundational understanding of OER, examine how they are distinguished from other "affordable" materials, and highlight benefits for faculty and students.

Instructional Practices
Updated June 2026
Bethany Mickel headshot
Bethany Mickel
Instructional Design & OER Librarian
University Library
View Bio
ES
Emily Scida
Instructional Designer
Learning Design & Technology
View Bio

What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?

BCcampus

This resource consists of a brief and informative overview of OER, providing a foundational definition, alongside examples of subsets of material, and a concise exposition of their impact.

Headshot of Bethany Mickel
ES
Bethany Mickel, Emily Scida
Providing a foundational definition of OER and examples of different types of materials, this is a concise, entry-level overview of the impact of OER. Plus, it offers findings of a study linking OER use and student success. This webpage is a perfect place to start for a quick overview.
View excerpt
Open resource

OER are teaching resources that have an open-copyright licence (such as one from Creative Commons), or they are part of the public domain and have no copyright. Depending on the licence used, OER can be freely accessed, used, re-mixed, improved, and shared.

Website
15 minutes
Was this resource helpful?

Locating OER

University of Virginia Library

Created by the University of Virginia Library, this resource features popular repositories for locating OER materials along with discipline-specific open resources, syllabi, textbooks, and more.

Headshot of Bethany Mickel
ES
Bethany Mickel, Emily Scida
In addition to providing useful links to locate OER, this page also serves as a direct connection to OER support from the University's helpful librarians. Confused about where to begin? Reaching out to one of our librarians is an excellent start.
Website
1 hour
Was this resource helpful?

Open Education Terminology

university of regina

This glossary of terminology serves as a reference point for the various terms that surface in discussions about open education.

Headshot of Bethany Mickel
ES
Bethany Mickel, Emily Scida

A handy reference defining key OER terms — from the 5Rs and Creative Commons licensing to attribution, accessibility, and derivative works — in plain, accessible language. It's a practical companion resource for anyone new to OER who needs a quick, reliable place to look up unfamiliar terminology.

Website
30 minutes
Was this resource helpful?

Differentiating OER from Other Affordable Content

University of Mary Washington

This overview differentiates OER from other popular "affordable" measures for student materials, including Open Access (OA), library-licensed content, and resources designated as "affordable course content."

Headshot of Bethany Mickel
ES
Bethany Mickel, Emily Scida

Broken down into concise definitions, this page outlines how OER differs from other commonly referenced "affordable" course material. When selecting a textbook or other course materials, this information can help untangle often-confusing language.

View excerpt
Open resource

OER are freely and publicly available teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. For example, instructors may download the material, tailor it to one’s course, save a copy locally to share with one’s students and share it back out with attribution. OER can include textbooks, course materials and full courses, modules, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.  An open source (or open) textbook is a textbook which is OER.

Website
15 minutes
Was this resource helpful?

Inclusive Access as a Challenge to Open and Affordable

InclusiveAccess.org

Inclusive Access (IA) is an automatic textbook billing model that incorporates digital textbook costs into students' tuition fees. This website highlights the considerations around this model and differentiates it from the affordability measures of OER.

Headshot of Bethany Mickel
ES
Bethany Mickel, Emily Scida

Have you encountered the term "inclusive access" and wondered how it factored in to the OER conversation? This page provides an excellent grounding in the key differences and considerations for instructors.

View excerpt
Open resource

The cost of college textbooks has increased sharply over the last several decades, which has harmed student access and success. Everyone agrees that this is a problem. As higher education leaders consider new textbook sales models that advertise lower costs, the campus community deserves to fully understand how these models impact students and faculty.

Website
30 minutes
Was this resource helpful?

The OER Starter Kit Workbook

Abby Elder and Stacy Katz

A practical, hands-on workbook designed to help instructors build confidence in finding, using, and creating open educational resources through guided worksheets and activities. Welcoming to faculty, librarians, instructional designers, and administrators alike, it's an accessible entry point for anyone new to OER.

Headshot of Bethany Mickel
ES
Bethany Mickel, Emily Scida

Those who learn best by doing will find this workbook especially useful as it pairs each of its five sections with guided worksheets and interactive elements designed for hands-on reflection and practice. Available on the Manifold platform, readers can easily annotate privately or publicly, work through Google Docs worksheets independently, or collaborate with colleagues.

Website
3-4 hours
Was this resource helpful?

Want to recommend a resource to add to this collection? Send us an email.

Related Galleries