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Open Educational Resources at SAIT: What are OERs?

Informational site about OER materials and practices at SAIT

Open educational resources are teaching, learning, and research resources that are created with the intention of being freely available to users anywhere. They may include, but are not limited to, textbooks, readings, multi-media files, software, assessment tools, and even entire courses. Most are covered by licenses that allow for using, re-mixing, and sharing. This page provides links to just a few of the many tools available to educators and students.

 

Saitsa holds the copyright on the video posted above and it is shared here with permission.

  OER Postcard (Three Reasons) by Claire Coulter, Scott Cowen, and Emma Gooch (eCampus Ontario)
  OER Postcard (Top 10 Myths) by Jenni Hayman, Olga Perkovic, and Nada Savicevic (eCampus Ontario)

Why Use OER?

For faculty:

  • OER supports innovation, exposure and reputation
  • OER improves learner understanding and drives engagement with open content
  • OER can increase student accessibility

For students:

  • Using OER results in direct cost savings to students and/or institutions
  • Using OER brings in different perspectives and provides more variety for students

Licensed CC-BY; created by Alberta OER Initiative. 

Read this article for a general overview of OERs in higher education:

The Open Educational Resources Movement is Redefining the Concept of Online Textbooks

Keep in Mind the 5 R's of Openness

 A resource is only considered "open" if you have the following rights when using it:

 

 

 

Licensed CC-BY; created by David Wiley and published at: http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/3221

RETAIN
the right to make, own, and control copies of the content

REUSE
the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)

REVISE
the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)

REMIX
the right to combine the original or revised content with other open content to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)

REDISTRIBUTE
the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)
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