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Open Educational Resources

What are Open Educational Resources?

According to SPARC, Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research resources that are free of cost and access barriers, and which also carry legal permission for open use.

OER include 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.


Generally, this permission is granted by use of an open license (for example, Creative Commons licenses) which allows anyone to freely use, adapt and share the resource—anytime, anywhere.


Use this guide to find OER in your discipline. Librarians are here to help you find effective materials. Can't find exactly what you want? Consider creating or adapting your own OER!

OER Basics

Video source: "OER Basics" by Open Oregon is licensed under CC BY 4.0