Dulaney-Browne Library: Open Educational Resources: Home

What Are Open Educational Resources?

Open educational resources (OER) are materials available freely and openly that may be used and adapted by educators and students for teaching, learning, and research. Most often these materials are digital resources, either in the public domain or with licensing that permits cost-free access, use, adaptation, and redistribution with few or no restrictions on such reuse. They may range in nature from individual documents to tests, streaming videos, modules, textbooks, software, full course materials, and so on.

Many OER materials are licensed under Creative Commons agreements, which are less restrictive than traditional copyright. See the Copyright and Creative Commons Licensing tab in this guide for more information on CC licenses.

Impact of Openness on Institutions A collection of interviews with administrators and faculty on the impact that open education projects and practice has had on their institutions
A multi-institutional study of the impact of open textbook adoption The purpose of this study was to analyze whether the adoption of no-cost open digital textbooks significantly predicted students’ completion of courses, class achievement, and enrollment intensity during and after semesters in which OER were used. This study utilized a quantitative quasi-experimental design with propensity-score matched groups to examine differences in outcomes between students that used OER and those who did not.