Open Educational Resources (OER)

OER are freely and publicly available teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and repurposing by others. OER can include textbooks, course materials and full courses, modules, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge. 

OER often have a Creative Commons license that state how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared.

Both OER and OA are inspired by the open movement which aims to remove knowledge from behind paywalls, but they differ in their purpose.

Open Educational Resources are free and open materials that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt, and reshare. OER focuses on teaching and instruction.

Open Access refers to teaching, learning and research materials that are available free online for anyone to use as is, but they may not be revised, remixed, or redistributed. OA focuses on research.

"Creative Commons is a global nonprofit organization that enables sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge through the provision of free legal tools. Our legal tools help those who want to encourage reuse of their works by offering them for use under generous, standardized terms; those who want to make creative uses of works; and those who want to benefit from this symbiosis." - CreativeCommons.org