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OER, NOLO, and the University Library

Create an Open Textbook

What are OERs?

Open Educational Resources (OERs) are teaching, learning, and research materials (books, articles, images, videos, curricula, and more) which are free to be used in educational settings. They may sometimes be subject to certain limits, depending on the license, but can be used without payment. (For more background, view definitions of OER from Creative Commons.)

In your teaching, you may encounter OERs in two ways:

  • You may create an OER, for your and others' use and re-use
  • You may find an OER (or many!) on the web, for you and your students to use

Why Does Licensing Matter?

Copyright refers to the legal rights of creators in publishing and sharing their work. Those form the basis of what we can and can't do with our intellectual work. Licenses further explain what can and cannot be done with intellectual work. Therefore, licenses matter!

In terms of OERs, in an ideal world they clearly provide use and re-use permissions through transparent licensing. Whether you use or create an OER, ideally there is clear licensing language that puts everyone on the same page.

 

"The "open" in open educational resources indicates that these materials are licensed with copyright licenses that provide permission for everyone to participate in the 5R activities - retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute." (From Defining OER-Enabled Pedagogy by David Wiley and John Hilton.)

What are the 5Rs?

The 5Rs are a set of guidelines for how to use and share open educational resources (OER) under Creative Commons licenses

Retain - the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage).
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 material 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).

How Do You Create an OER?

Start with this selection of resources and tutorials on the details of creating, licensing, and publishing your own open textbook.

Before You Start

Copyright and licensing

There are two decisions you should make regarding copyright, licensing, and citation.

  • How will you license your OER? This makes clear to your readers how you want the OER to be used and re-used. Visit the CC License Help website to learn more and choose a license.
  • How will you cite the sources you use in creating the OER? Generally, you just need to choose a citation style (APA, MLA, CSE, or your other favorite), and then create appropriate citations for resources you use. See Best Practices for Attribution for more guidance.

Why Creative Commons?

Creative Commons is a widely-used and widely-understood license type. It will allow you to use common language for licensing, with relatively clear usage permissions. There are six Creative Commons License types. The distinctions indicate whether or not material is to be directly copied or whether it will be changed and adapted, and whether or not a commercial use is intended. All licenses require that the original creator be attributed.

Platforms for Publication

Resources in Massachusetts

Assess OER Impact

The Massachusetts Department of Education has developed a rubric of key performance indicators to help instructors demonstrate the effect of their OER adoption.