Open Educational Resources
Make learning more affordable for students!
OER stands for Open Educational Resources, and our goal is to introduce OER to interested faculty, administrators, and students.
"Open Educational Resources are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse, without charge. OER often have a Creative Commons or GNU license that state specifically how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared” - OER Commons
About Open Educational Resources
About Open Educational Resources
Open Educational Resources are a combination of educational materials and resources that can be used openly and freely via the Internet by just about anyone. Professors can use the resources to supplement and even replace their current educational materials. Examples of OER:
- Learning content: full courses, course materials, content modules, learning objectives, journals and collections.
- Tools: software to support the creation, delivery, customization, and use of open learning content.
Why Open Educational Resources
Basically, it serves as another way of helping students succeed by supporting student equity and flexibility. The high cost of textbooks and other educational materials can be one of several factors that can prevent students from achieving their educational goals. Here are some of the benefits of OER:
- Student Success through equity. Some students are forced to forgo some or all class materials due to costs.
- Financial relief can help ease the stress of college and other factors in the lives of students.
- Administrators can also benefit from OER. With all the pressures of increasing student enrollments, committing to Open Educational Resources and other forms of affordable course materials creates a more appealing proposition for prospective students.
- For educators, OER can mean having more control of their own course. No need to wait for textbook updates, or no need to struggle finding the perfect book for your classroom.
Open Educational Resources & Student Equity
Everybody deserves a chance for a good education. So how can we provide a better education to all of our students? Open Educational Resources may not be the only solution but it's definitely an important one.
Perhaps most importantly...
Open Education Resources benefit student success!
A primary focus of Open Educational Resources is student equity and flexibility. Students want to learn, and education is an essential tool used to solve challenges that affect society. Many times, provisions in education limit the amount of resources an educational institution is able to offer to students. By providing free and open access to educational materials, tools, and knowledge we can help ALL students succeed.
Everyone can benefit from using Open Educational Resources. We can learn new and efficient ways to help us do our jobs better. Educators can exchange ideas and materials to enhance each other's curriculum. Teachers and professors can learn new ways to help students learn and succeed.
Getting Started with Open Educational Resources
Finding Open Educational Resources for my class
There are lots of Online Educational Resources that are readily available for free use today. Tools and resources created by educators all over the country. Please check out some of the links below for more information.
OER at Mt. SAC!
Coming soon!
About Creative Commons
For more information please visit the official Creative Commons website.
"Creative Commons helps you legally share your knowledge and creativity to build a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world--unlocking the full potential of the Internet to drive a new era of development, growth, and productivity. Creative Commons license are not an alternative to copyright. They work alongside copyright and enable you to modify your copyright terms to best suit your needs." -creativecommons.org
