OER is an abbreviation that stands for Open Education Resources, which refer to education resources that have been licensed using a Creative Commons license which generally speaking allows other educators to reuse and in some case readapt the resources in question to their own ends. Indeed, the five Rs of OER – retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute – speak to this idea of freely sharing and using educational resources. OER has been championed by many libraries and educators as a publishing practice that corresponds better with the spirit of knowledge seeking and education that defines universities since it facilitates a freer circulation of knowledge and information. OER also recognizes that the general public finances a lot of university research through tax-funded grants, so the results of that research belong more properly in the public domain. OER’s popularity has also risen in recent years as a reaction against the acquisitive practices of many academic publishing houses of which the licensing fees and book prices have increased dramatically in the past two decades.
The resources on this page address various dimensions of OER, including 1) fuller explanations of OER (see libguide mentioned under "online resources"), 2) where to find OER resources (see "online resources"), 3) how to create OER resources (see "online resources"), 4) and how to understand and apply Creative Commons licenses (see below).
Common questions and responses from the U.S. Copyright Office:
What is copyright?
Who is a copyright owner?
What rights do copyright owners have?
How long does copyright protection last?
U.S. Copyright Office (2024, March 26). What is Copyright? Copyright.gov. https://copyright.gov/what-is-copyright/
This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license from Creative Commons.
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