Affordable Learning Resources

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research resources that are free of cost and access barriers.  OER carry legal permission for open use.* They include a multitude of formats, including textbooks, full courses, modules, videos, labs, assignments, and assessments.

OER are licensed in such a way that enables adopters to utilize the 5 Rs:

1. Retain a copy of the content
2. Reuse the content in a range of ways
3. Revise the content as needed
4. Remix original or revised content with other material
5. Redistribute the original, revisions, and remixes with others

Creative Commons licenses are often applied to OER to license these rights to adopters.

• Saves money, especially on textbooks: Savings can be applied to other curricular needs. 
• Pedagogical freedom: Faculty can add, remove, and modify content to fit their classroom rather than having an expensive textbook dictate topics and order.
• Immediate and lasting access: Resources can be accessed immediately, retained (or downloaded), and returned to again and again.