Open Education Resources
OER
Open Educational Resources Introduction
Open Educational Resources (OERs) are learning materials that available free of cost and with an open license to use by anyone for teaching, learning, and research. These resources include textbooks, lecture notes, videos, quizzes, assignments, and online courses. Normally, the learning materials available with a Creative Commons License, which are of six types:
- Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY): Allows anyone to distribute, remix, and build upon the work (even commercially), as long as they credit the creator.
- Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA): Same as CC BY, but any new works based on it must carry the identical license.
- Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Derivative (CC BY-ND): Allows for redistribution (even commercially) as long as the work is unchanged and credited.
- Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC): Allows others to remix and build upon the work non-commercially, provided they credit the creator.
- Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA): Allows others to remix and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as they credit the creator and license the new creation under the identical terms.
- Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Non-Derivative (CC BY-NC-ND): The most restrictive license; allows others to download and share the work, but they cannot change it or use it commercially, and they must give credit.
Creative Commons license with ND is not considered OER, as they cannot be repurposed to create derivative. In addition, CC0 (Public Domain) license is also considered as OER. Public domain means the document for which the copyright has expired or the creator has relinquished copyright.
The Library of Usha Martin University has curated OER of various disciplines/progammes to support additional reading and enhance classroom learning. OER promotes equal access to quality education, encourages self-learning, and supports the sharing of knowledge among educational institutions. The purpose of OER is to reduce the cost of education by providing high-quality learning materials free of charge.
Some Common OER Repositories
- Labxchange: https://www.labxchange.org/
- Skillcommons: https://als.skillscommons.org/
- MERLOT: https://www.merlot.org/merlot/
- BC Campus: https://open.bccampus.ca/
- NPTEL: https://nptel.ac.in/
- OERCommons; https://oercommons.org/
- Open Textbook Library: https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks
- Pressbooks: https://pressbooks.directory/
- MIT Blossoms: https://web.mit.edu/blossoms/
- MITOpenCourseWare: https://ocw.mit.edu/
- OpenLearn: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/
- OpenStax: https://openstax.org/
- Libretexts; https://libretexts.org/
- VidyaMitra (INFLIBNET): https://vidyamitra.inflibnet.ac.in/