OER Faculty Guide

OER Defined: 

"'Open Educational Resources' are high-quality teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license, such as a Creative Commons license, that permits their free use and repurposing by others, and may include other resources that are legally available and free of cost to students. 'Open educational resources' include, but are not limited to, full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, faculty-created content, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge."

• Section 67423 of the California Education Code (College Textbook Affordability Act of 2015)

• Also see: SB-1359 Public postsecondary education: course materials.

Compelling Reasons to Consider OER – The Barriers

• Rising cost of textbooks
• Access challenges for students 
• Inequitable impact of cost

Other Considerations

• Allows for flexibility and customization of content
• Opportunity to include marginalized voices and points of view to content
• Opportunity for colloboration